r/Indiemakeupandmore

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

Free Talk threads repeat Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

I was hoping to get back into my BPAL love from my younger days, but I’ve just realized it’s one of many companies that only claim to be cruelty free and don’t actually have certification. I’ve been trying to emphasize more brands that are Leaping Bunny certified specifically, as they actually require evidence of supply side ethics, etc. PETA certification is okay and better than nothing, but BPAL doesn’t have either. Kind of a bummer.

Are there any actually certified brands that you all recommend?

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

Free Talk threads repeat Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

🌊🌿 Introducing … To the Waters and the Wilds 🌿🌊

It is that time of year again! Our new Summer collection of escapes and wild wanderings — salt-kissed shores, twilight florals, hidden groves, and the call of untamed places beyond the edges of the ordinary. Going LIVE this Saturday, May 16!

Included in this collection:

✨ Amulet — A botanical amulet for enhancing powers of attraction – the salt musk of skin flushed by desire, sweet rice, honey-butterscotch amber, cream rose, peach blossom, freesia, and an infusion of Lucky Hand orchid root.

🌙 Fata Morgana — A curious enchantment of nicotania, moonflower, azahar, verbena, artemesia, fresh hay, oakmoss, ethereal aquatics and elusive flashes of green amber.

🖤 Midnight Poppy — A shadowed love-mystery of brooding opium poppies, dark velvet rosewood, poetry stained with blackberry wine, ghostly white santal, midnight-black ebony.

🕊️ Sylph — A diaphanous aria of sparkling elderflower cordial, mandarin, plum blossom, red currant, grapefruit, honeysuckle, white ginger, plumeria, and vanilla tea leaves.

🌊 The Sea Has Many Gods — A collection of ritual sea offerings infused with the echo of oceanic reply – sea sage, maile leaves, tuberose garlands, seaweed, spiral seashells, and grey ambergris.

🌲 To the Waters and the Wild — The saline kiss of an Atlantic selkie and mountain mist descending over rolling dells of fae botanicals - purple heather, bluebells, wild geraniums, bee balm, meadowsweet, bracken ferns, watery hazel, and gnarled Scots pine.

This is summer in all of its glory — wild-hearted, windswept, and impossible to fully tame.

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

Hi, I'm wondering if you guys know of any good makeup brands on Esty or even if they have their own website? I'm looking for all kinds of things I prefer pressed eyeshadows but I'm not opposed to trying loose pigments. Brands that stand out, even if the packaging into too crazy I still want to try. I like more thin glittery shades then more chunky glitters and I do like matte shades. Maybe some indie brands that have good foundations, face, and lip products? Not too crazy expensive but I'm willing to check out anything. I don't wear makeup too often but some brands I have tried was Black moon cosmetics and Rituel de fille. Some brands I've seen on esty are Pretties for your face, Addictive cosmetics, Fierce magenta, Abomination cosmetics, Spectrum cosmetics, and Haunting hues. Other brands I heard about are Sinful echos, M81, Friynnae, Dandy lions, Bella Beauty bar, and Blend Bunny. If you guys have any reviews for any of the brands listed I'd be interested to hear! If there are any that you think stand out that you've tried please let me know. Or any brands that I didn't mention. Thank you for your time and help!

As announced a while ago, BPAL has been working on updating their website to make it easier to navigate for us, and easier to maintain for them. Today's the day!

The new website is now available, and they've shared an FAQ about changes. To summarize some of the more important points:

• People will need to create new accounts (handled via Shop)
• Credits & Gift Cards from the old website will be replaced manually via a code sent to customers via e-mail. This may take some time!
• The General Catalogue has been re-named to "Eternal Collection" and new scents have been added to it (though they have not stated what they are just yet)

According to BPAL, the new website is not yet entirely feature complete! It might take them a few days/weeks to implement everything they're hoping for, so if something's missing, that may be why.

RIP old BPAL website, we will (maybe) miss you (but also maybe not so much!)

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

I have the confess that this collection is the fastest I've ever gone from learning about a release to purchase, in total about 15 minutes. Usually, I love pouring over notes and cross-referencing with similar scents already in my collection, adding and removing items from my cart, and letting the cart sit for a day so I don't make any impulsive purchases.

However, this one felt especially targeted to people who love the breadth of ecosystems in California, as well as the unique smells that accompany them. I have such strong scent memories of different parts of the state, and it's clear that these perfumes were made by someone who has stood in a forest or stream or desert here and taken a deep inhale of atmosphere of the place. It was made by a perfumer who loves California as much as I do.

___________________________________

Snowmelt: (glacial water, wet granite, silver pine needle, sequoia bark, crushed mint leaf, mountain air, white musk, a trace of sun-warmed lichen.)

• This was the one that sold me on the collection. I have been searching for probably a decade for this particular scent of the forests of the High Sierra. There's a specific scent when you're above 9,000 feet in the high country that's clean and almost dry and aromatic. I've searched for so many forest scents but they're all damp earth and moss and wet leaves. This one is what Yosemite smells like, but off Tioga Road, not the Valley. This is the Eastern Sierra near Mount Whitney. It's cedar and pine and clumps of mountain mint, and melting snow leaving wet streaks on endless slabs of granite. Somehow, the scent even captures the smell of mountain air, and you can almost feel the wind blowing snow off of a distant cliff.
• 10/10 we're starting strong baby

Foothills: (wild grasses, fennel fronds, clover stems, chamomile, green barley, eucalyptus leaf, dry earth, hay bloom.)

• If I were to assign a location to this perfume, it would be a lush ravine that's incredibly full of plants and LIFE. It's fern and moss and cool water and warm moss. After a few hours though, the fern turns sickly sweet on me like all fern frond notes, to my dismay as a great frond to ferns.
• 6/10 green and lush on someone who is not me

Riverbend: (fig leaf, green fig skin, river water accord, willow bark, white tea, soft silt, cool iris, driftwood.)

• The greenest fig imaginable, and slightly dark lake water. On cloth, there's a sharp, almost astringent note, maybe from the willow. I almost wrote it off, but on skin the softer notes come through, and I get wafts of white tea and pale wood. The scent memory for this one is floating down the Russian River or American River on a hazy summer day, taking sips of iced tea as you watch branches idle past fig leaves on the shore.
• 7/10 summertime for people who love sharp green watery scents

Farmer's Market: (Meyer lemon leaf, tangerine peel, peach skin, apricot, tomato leaf, basil flower, cucumber water, white canvas, wicker baskets.)

• This was the biggest and most pleasant surprise. It's pure citrus and joy, the platonic ideal of a citrus scent. I get Meyer lemon zest and a little bit of tangerine. If I squint I can detect little bits of stone fruit and tomato leaf giving it a little zing, but really it's mostly bright pure lemon. I didn't think I liked lemon that much, but this is a shot of dopamine in a spray. Sadly, it disappears after an hour or two. Would wear this gardening or on a carefree weekend day.
• 9/10 uncut joy in a bottle

Orchard: (apricot flesh, loquat, osmanthus, marigold, dry pollen, wheat straw, nectarine skin, pale amber.)

• All of the notes look so good, and I think this could be a perfect high summer scent, golden and warm and sweet. However, this set was how I learned that pollen is a death note for me. Maybe it's because it's springtime and there is already a layer of pollen over every surface in this house, making us all sneeze and huff. I tried this on cloth, paper and skin, and it was a no-go every time.
• 2/10 absolutely not for me and I'm so bitter about it

Sequoia: (giant sequoia accord, incense cedar, fir needle, cypress shadow, resin tears, moss, forest dust, smoked ambergris.)

• Another pleasant surprise. Beautiful pure incense cedar when wet, and wafts of pine resin comes through throughout the day. Very layered, I get the sharp terpenes of the needle, the warmth of the wood, the sticky resin, and a slight dirt note from the forest floor. It's like sniffing a conifer from the canopy to the undergrowth: leaf to branch to root, all the notes are there and emerge at different times.
• 8/10 this is a whole-ass sequoia tree

Three Rivers: (river stone, neroli water, wild mint, transparent jasmine tea, soft skin musk, sun-warmed cotton, blonde woods.)

• I've been mulling over whether to purchase a FS of Clue Perfumery's The Point, because I am obsessed with the jasmine tea note. Three Rivers smells so similar on me, an aquatic jasmine tea, but with a hint of mint and freshwater instead of salt. It's definitely more short-lived, but at the price point I may just buy a bigger bottle and use more. I don't detect the neroli or cotton, but there's an overall bright freshness to the scent that I adore.
• 9/10 I love jasmine tea

Golden Hour: (Orange blossom, humid air, dry grasses, warm dust, peach leaf, canyon sage, honeyed light accord, pale woods, amber light.)

• Light as air and dry-hazy, like a slightly smoky summer afternoon. I get mostly grass and pale amber, but the orange blossom is there to lift the mood slightly. This is a VIBE. Not sure I love enough to full size, but I love smelling it all day.
• 7/10 makes me feel sun-drunk

B-Side**:**
Super Bloom: California poppy, lupine, wild mustard flower, dusty petals, warm stems, bee pollen, fennel blossom, sunstruck earth, sun nectar.

• Same as Orchard, has that pollen note that destroys what should be a bouquet of all my favorite local wildflowers that I love smelling this time of year.
• 1/10 still bitter about it

Overall, I loved this collection. It speaks so clearly to all the sites and smells that I love in California, and I feel so seen that all the notes and places that I hold so dear are relished enough to be captured into a perfume collection like this one. This is my first time trying Deconstructing Eden, and I find that their fruit notes are incredible but short-lived, and their recreations of outdoor air and water are incredibly spot-on.

I think I will be upsizing Snowmelt, Farmer's Market, and Three Rivers, and sampling more from their collections. Please let me know if you have any favorites that you'd suggest!

What indies are you using today? And we mean everything! Examples of stuff we'd love to hear about:

• Makeup

• Clothes

• Jewelry

• Bath and Body (lotion, soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc.)

• Nail polish

• Perfume

Please feel free to leave mini-reviews and include photos of whatever you're using. We'd love to know your thoughts and see the products too!

This thread repeats daily.

Hi all! I hadn't realized it had been so long since I posted any of my reviews, and I've been trying out a lot of new scents, and wanted to share some of the backlog:

Pierrot Perfumery: I blind bought 4 full size EDPs

Bussy (orange blossom, orange peel, fuzzy peach, fresh linen, and 70s musk): This was very green and kind of unripe with a little hint of orange, and despite the majority fruit scents, wasn't particularly fruity. It's like fruit that is still growing, specifically I think the peach was more peach skin. It's an unexpectedly dry scent and the notes combining most reminds me of fig sap. It's grown on me much more after about a month, a week and a half in (first test) was much more chemical and rain-adjacent, but this is very fresh and somewhat appealing. Not sure I'll reach for it much, but I tend to sort scents into "good" and "bad" instead of having a "maybe" or "mid" part of the scale, and this is definitely in the "good" section. (6.5/10 mmm bussy)

Bones and All (Clary sage, Spanish Broom, sea kelp, neroli, ylang ylang, sea salt, algae and blood, green tea, white musk): This is possibly the strangest reaction I've had to a scent. This perfume sets off my fight/flight/freeze (I am decidedly a freeze person) instinct. It's for sure an accurate grotto kind of scent, an oceanic seaweed musky that's a little dingy and it fits the aesthetic described and intended perfectly, but apparently that's too much for my hindbrain to handle. I feel like a character in a horror comedy who's like "It's behind me, isn't it?" as a huge sea monster looms over them scooby doo style. Also has a glue note to me for some reason. (1.5/10 I'M IN DANGER)

The Pansy Craze (A joyful floral blend of pansies, lilies, chypre, musk, magnolia, and french perfume): Absolutely obsessed with this one. It smells like a flower shop that's getting misted. It's a green, wet thing, and a killer androgynous perfume because it doesn't lean too floral, it's a very atmospheric green scent that's more associated with florals in my brain than actually floral. It's like a flower shop atmosphere if you removed the most striking of floral scents. It's like a humid greenhouse and it's a perfume I didn't know I was looking for. Didn't expect it to smell like this at all though. (8/10 MIST ME)

Cult of Dionysus (A rich blend of fresh figs, ripe and juicy pears, honey, and generously full cups of red wine and honey mead): This is far more cinnamon-y than I expected for a perfume that has no cinnamon notes, it is primarily a kind of mulled wine vibe. It's very thick and rich, spicier than I thought it would be. It has a prolific and iconic vibe of midday at a Ren Faire, when you're a cup or two in and having the time of your life on a sunny weekend. My favorite of the bunch, another incredible androgynous perfume for my nonbinaries and general gender outlaws out there. (9/10 Living my best life)

General Pierrot Thoughts: Wow, what a great house! Even scents I didn't like were accurate to the aesthetic and the last two have become some of my all-time favorites and I use them very frequently.

Black Hearted Tart: I ordered a BUNCH of ajevie samples a while ago

Red Wine Lips (An alluring blend of dark fruits and sweet red wine draws you in with its irresistible aroma. Resinous olibanum and laudanum, enhanced by floral notes of saffron and immortelle absolute create the heart. The lingering base is a duet of warm vanilla extract and spiced amber): This is a hugely marshmallow vanilla that is supremely cloying and like a cloud if it was a taste and I don't like it at all. Way too sweet, not really any wine, it's just like a pillow in a soft sense. Idk if that makes sense, but it's lowkey sickening (negative, not gay positive) and I cannot stand it. (1/10 Get thee away)

Waves of Galveston (A medley of fruit scents with a touch of driftwood creates a “drinks on the pier” accord. Ocean breezes carry wafts of seaweed and aloe. Sunny notes of clementine and tropical tuberose inspire an island feel): This is a me problem. You know how sometimes you sniff a perfume and it reminds you of something so personal that you know no one else probably has a problem with it but you do? This smells like my cucumber Secret Dry Spray deodorant and I cannot get over that. More organic, and fresh, but I used that deodorant every day for like 6 months and I can't do it again. There's a little melon to it but it's my deodorant. I don't want it. (2/10 rip)

Champagne Supernova (Fizzy pink champagne is elevated with frozen mangoes and a sweet red berry accord.  Freesia petals, baby powder, and cashmere musk add a flirty feel.): This smells like gentle laundry detergent with a little bit more of a nature-based composition (like the artificial scent made up of organic components). It does not feel flirty to me, it's like a solid day doing chores. A peaceful, productive sunday. It's nice to smell but not really to wear, with the biggest note being baby powder berries. (4/10 gentle on skin tough on stains or whatever the ads are on about)

Sea, Swallow Me (Cascalone and fresh mint conjure the atmosphere of a cold northern wind piercing through the crest of ocean waves. Saltwater swells carry the scent of driftwood and pine planks from a ship slipping beneath the surface. Notes of vetiver and ambergris, darkened by frankincense, mimic the tone of a murky, deep sea.): This is mainly pine and mint to me, but thankfully not very wood-y. A little lemongrass and the saltwater is generally getting expressed as a brisk freshness. Very atmospheric over a perfume-perfume scent, in general to me it smells like very clean soap that's pine with mint. It's nice, but not super interesting, and I won't look at it/grab for it again. (4/10 it's pine... get it? I'll see myself out)

Alkemia: various random IMAM swaps

Old Books and Fresh Flowers (Fresh neroli orange flowers and heliotrope pressed between the delicate paper pages of a leather-bound book): This smells like the tangy undercurrent of watermelon jolly ranchers wrapped in dust. Not a combination I want. (2.5/10 five second rule does not apply)

Secret Garden (A blissful Eden of orange blossoms, Meyer's lemon, bitter orange, acai, cherimoya, garden mint, bergamot, and blackcurrant buds with fresh papaya, honey mango, and white amber grounded by earthy oakmoss, green patchouli, and soft blonde woods.): This is lemon-lime and spicy green things. Kind of an organic wood/surface cleaner tone, also slightly woody which... I don't vibe with. Overall aesthetic: Old stately house that a maid has just cleaned with a hidden away resident whose room overlooks a garden that is beautifully manicured but no one touches. It's growing on me but not enough to justify itself. Non-offensive. (5/10 sure.)

More incoming soon, but here's the first ones for now!

I got my luper decants a little over a week ago and have been smearing them on in a fervor, one new scent on each wrist every day, and I'm finally through testing them all! Here are all of my impressions!

My scent loves are creamy vanillas, sweet incense, honey, citruses, and spicy white florals. I don't like scents that are powdery, rose notes, things that are sticky sweet, or cherry scents.

On to the reviews!

• Blissful Relaxation

Cardamom, bourbon cream, white sandalwood, and incense.

The bourbon cream in this takes on an almost fruity character, cherry like, and then morphs into an ever-so-slightly plasticky caramel cream, where it wears pretty much just like that. No sandalwood or incense in this one to be smelled on me, which were the two notes I was so excited for. It's more gourmand than I was expecting, and it feels almost autumnal. Fans of caramel scents would probably loves this, but for me it's just too sweet. 6 bourbon milk punches out of 10.

• By Candlelight

Beeswax, wildflower honey, copal resin, vanilla bean, balsam, and frankincense.

I hated this one. It goes on smelling like a citronella candle, and stays that way. I wish I had more to say about it, but it smells like mosquito repellent with a little fuzzy vanilla underneath. Not for me. 0 mosquito candles out of 10

• Demonstration of Tools of Love

Honeyed orris root, mahogany, amber cream, smoked vanilla, and golden carnation.

This one is gorgeous. It goes on smelling like violet pastilles candy, an edible pale lilac scent. It's delicate and lovely. It wears fairly linear, and I never end up getting any of the carnation or vanilla smokiness. This scent makes me sad to wear because it reminds me too much of my dead mom, but for anyone else without that association it's a perfectly pretty orris scent that wears well for a long time. 6 chowards violet candies out of 10.

• Ehon Takara Gura

Vanilla sandalwood, chrysanthemum, and lemon peel.

This opens with a gentle lemon zest scent and then settles into an earthy and gently citrusy chrysanthemum. This one fades pretty quickly on me, and it isn't as sweet or woody as I expected. I think I need to re-test this one to really get the full picture of the scent. This fully fell in the middle of the pack in terms of how much I liked what I tried. ? bouquets of mums out of 10.

• Honey, Tonka Bean, and Toasted Vanilla

This is a clear, light yellow wildflower honey scent, and the only one from the Honey Pot that I tried. I love honey notes, and I love BPAL honey a lot. This one is no exception. The honey is the driving force, with just a little bit of fuzzy warm tonka and vanilla to support the whole thing. To me, this is a spring and summer honey that isn't too sticky sweet, I can see myself wearing this on hot days this summer. I will definitely be picking up a bottle of this one. 9 honeycombs out of 10.

• I Too, Beneath Your Moon

Vanilla cream, white patchouli, French lavender, bergamot, and apple.

This opens with a BLAST of red apple. I expected from the way that the notes were listed that it would be more of a whisper of apple, but it is apple dominant. The lavender and vanilla cream come out of this later in to the wear, and I imagine it as a red candied apple rolled in vanilla sugar and lavender buds. My partner described this as "nice and pretty" which was a shock, because they frequently describe apple scents as "it would make a good candle." I may pick up more of this, but I'm undecided still. 7 candied apples out of 10.

• In the Doghouse

Welcome to your new home: warm cedar planks, a tousled cotton blankie, and a red leather collar complete with bright gold chain.

This was one that surprised me, it smells almost nothing like the listed notes on me. This is a fresh and clean laundry scent, with no trace of leather or cedar. I got a half decant because I was intrigued by the leather and gold chain, but it just smells like clean clothes. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for. I'll hang on to my sample and see if it morphs at all with time, but I'm not compelled to get more. 6 laundered sheets out of 10.

• Like the Very Gods 2026

Shuddering, sweat-warmed skin gleaming with sheer musk, honeyed olive blossoms, vanilla cedar, white sandalwood, and orris butter.

Another one I thoroughly did not like. It smelled like baby powder in the vial, and it smelled like baby powder on my skin. It wore impressively long, I could still smell it twelve hours from when I tested it at night until I woke up in the morning. I have already passed this one along to a friend, who tested it out with me. It smelled better on their skin, but still read very much like baby wipes to my nose. 0 powdered babies out of 10.

• Lilac-Draped Vulva

Lilac-soaked amber cream, orris root, blue lotus absolute, white sandalwood, and purple yam.

I like lilac just fine, and the scent of a lilac bush in bloom is one of my favorite parts of springtime. I find most lilac scents don't have the kind of green wetness that I like in fresh blooms, and this is no exception. It's lilac, with the freshness stripped away. On me, this fades into a lilac and shea butter. I don't get any lotus or sandalwood, the two notes in the blend I was the most excited for. I tried both Reflected Vulva and Ivory Vulva many years ago, and both have the same sort of creamy lotion-y drydown that I'm getting here. It must be something in the dna of these sorts of blends that just doesn't agree with my skin chemistry. 4 fancy spa lotions out of 10.

• Love’s Philosophy 2026

Vanilla, saffron, and cream

I love vanilla, I love cream, and I LOVE the way this smells on my skin! The saffron takes on an almost juicy petal quality, and it smells cool and creamy without edging into anything too deeply gourmand. This is greatly beloved for good reason. Another one I'll be upsizing to a big bottle. 9.5 whipped cream bowls out of 10.

• Loving Couple in Festive Clothing

White sandalwood and amber incense with lemon peel, lemon balm, golden grapefruit, and neroli.

This goes on almost cleaner levels of heavy lemon peel, and then morphs quickly into a lemon Pez sort of a scent that reminds me of Penis Bound with Gold Ribbon. That is where the similarities end. On the drydown, this morphs into a scent that I can only describe as "fancy older man relative dresses up for the holidays." It has an old spice type of cologne-y edge that immediately reads as masculine to my nose. It's like a very classy sort of a barbershop quartet. This one was also passed along to a friend who prefers masculine and spicy scents. 6.5 grandpas handkerchiefs out of 10.

• Pearl Necklace 2026

Skin musk dribbling with pear cream, orris root, vanilla bean, and raw honey.

This was my sleeper hit of all of my decants. I almost didn't try this, because pear scents so often smell like pear jellybeans and I think they're gross. This, in the vial, has that same pear jellybean note that I don't like. On the skin, it morphs into a juicy pear scent that is absolutely dripping with golden honey. The pear fades quickly into a honeyed creamy skin musk that I really, really love. Fans of Arcana's Infinite Sky will find a similar creamy vanilla drydown here. This is another huge and surprising winner, and I am SO glad I took a chance and tried it! 9 pear jelly beans out of 10.

• Please Come

An invitation: black amber and pink peony sealed in a creamy white paper envelope.

This was my most anticipated scent of the whole bunch! I love paper notes, but unfortunately there's not much of that here. This opens with a punch of peony, both wet and fresh. It's a deeply realistic peony scent, with almost a rose jam like quality to it. It's gorgeous, and deeply, deeply feminine. It has a heady, heavy throw that swirls around you as you move. I really like this, but it's not the kind of thing I wear, so I'll be perfectly happy just hanging on to my decant. 8 blooming peony bushes out of 10.

• The Serpent in the Lilies

Calla lilies stained blood red by Snake Oil and daemonorops draco, flecked with poison-touched lily of the valley.

This opens with a ton of heavy lily, which fades pretty quicky into a lovely dragonsblood scent with just a touch of snake oil underneath. This smells like a beautiful lady who works at a metaphysical store selling crystals, who has long curly hair and wears long black skirts to match. I wasn't expecting to like this one so much, but when I wore it I found myself going back and sniffing at my wrists so much that I think I may have to get a bottle of this, too. 9 crystal divinations out of 10.

I feel like I had a pretty poor hit rate with these. I love testing scents so much, so I'm not upset that I didn't get that many hits, but I am honestly suprised that I picked so many for myself that I really didn't like. I think there's something for everyone in the gargantuan luper collection, and there's something to be said for longstanding fan favorites like Love's Philosophy and Like the Very Gods, which I was convinced to try thanks to so many rave reviews, but only one ended up being to my taste.

Just received this email from Mythpunk Olfactive. For people who don't know, this site owner has disappeared with unsent orders multiple times, then comes back to ask forgiveness. I wish her the best personally, but I don't think anyone can in good faith encourage ordering from this house at this point, there are much more reliable perfume houses.

Subject line: howdy, it's been a while

hey changelings & strangelings! 

i'm back with some exciting updates and a little personal news. it's been a minute, i know. as always, business first, with the personal stuff at the bottom.

so here's what's new: we've got fresh 2mls with threadless caps that won't dry out on you. grab them solo for $10 each or snag a trinket pack of 4 for $32. fair warning though, the professional labels didn't quite work out, so we're using temporary ones that aren't the prettiest, but they do the trick. 

plus, we've got a release! it's a smaller one as we're easing back in, but we're introducing a new member of the stuffkin family and some gorgeous spring & summer witch moths. the stuffkin scent, Starkin, is inspired by my two favorite drinks at Starbucks, haha.

scent notes

Starkin: mango, lavender, matcha, oatmilk, Stuffkin vanilla

Opal Witch Moth: honeysuckle, green fig, crushed leaves, wild jasmine, rice absolute, opalescent musk

Ametrine Witch Moth: davana, pomegranate, dried fig, ylang ylang extra, jasmine sambac co2, blonde tobacco, sandalwood

Citrine Witch Moth: cardamom, toasted coconut, orange blossom, champaca, burnished dark amber, choya nakh (roasted seashells), Virginian cedarwood

Pearl Witch Moth: bergamot, gardenia, plumeria, ambergris (vegan), silver amber, pearlescent musk

yay!

with that out of the way, the store is now re-open and orders will start shipping wednesday!

also, to make room in the studio, autumn fragrances are on sale for 25% off. candy butcher puff is on clearance and marked down to just $15 (seriously, please take it off my hands. there is SO much, i may have gotten a little carried away making this one, haha).

also also! i'm currently working on sourcing new bottles after receiving feedback about some evaporation with the 6ml sizes. finding the right small bottles has been challenging, but it's a priority for us. i'm also putting together product photography because i know we don’t have any product photos up. i'm still learning the ropes (i’ll admit i’m really not a good photographer, haha) but we're making progress.

personal stuff

i know i said it's been a while, and that's probably an understatement. last autumn i suddenly lost access to psychiatric care, which made things really difficult with my schizoaffective disorder and other stuff. it took a few months to get back on track, but i'm now re-medicated and receiving care again. we're slowly reintroducing medications, so it took me a little time to stabilize, but i'm genuinely feeling so much better now. i'll probably be dealing with unmedicated adhd for a bit, but at least the mood, depression, and anxiety stuff is being handled. that's been a huge help.

thank you so much to everyone who reached out with kind words & concern. i'm really sorry to anyone who was worried or whose orders were affected. i appreciate you more than you know.

also, all pending orders that hadn't received chargebacks or refunds were shipped out back in april. the store's been closed while i took care of an ill grandmother and got everything ready for this release, but we're back now with a clean slate, and i'm hopeful things will keep moving forward!

thank you everyone!

as always, wherever you are, i hope that you feel safe & loved and that you smell good <3

- ashe @ mythpunk olfactive