My Indie Perfume Collection - Part 3

Phew! I didn't realise how long this was going to take me - I thought I'd just snap a few pictures and whack them up on the blog but it took me forever. I was planning to immediately go on and inventory all my makeup but I think I might leave that til the new year now. And maybe have a bit of a clean out first...

This last post is mostly companies whose perfumes I have quite a few of, with some other randoms at the end. As with the other two, I'll link to reviews if I have them.

My Indie Perfume Collection - Part 2

So of course, after posting all those samples, a couple of days later I was looking for some other random thing in a drawer and found a whole stash of more samples that I'd put aside for testing and then forgotten about. I was a bit excited about that actually, because it's like getting something new all over again!

Again, I'm putting the pics behind a cut because there are loads and loads of them.

My Indie Perfume Collection - Part 1

I thought I would do an indie perfume collection update as it's been a year since my last one and my perfume collection has grown immensely. In fact, when I compared pictures I was a bit shocked by the difference. So much for that clearing out and decluttering I've been banging on about for the last couple of years.

This is part one, because there are a lot of photos. A LOT. I'm starting with samples and I've reviewed them I'll link to the review - though most of these are ones I have not reviewed yet. If you're interested in seeing what I have, clicky clicky!

Solstice Scents - a little rave

Today I want to give a shout out to an indie company I am loving more and more with each order, Solstice Scents. Although I'm a pretty seasoned indie perfume purchaser, I came late to this brand, and I don't know why. I bought a sample pack way back in September 2011, probably after reading someone rave about them on a perfume forum. I tried them, liked them, but then put them away and pretty much forgot about them. It wasn't until December 2012 when I read a post on Michelle's blog about some that she had tried out that I decided to wade back in. And honestly, I don't know what took me so long to get with the program!

I have 4 full size perfume oils, a full size premium perfume oil, 3 Burnishing Glace Mists, a Creamy Whipped Soap and multiple samples (not pictured).

Perfume Oils
Lace Draped Spectre -  incredible creamy, peppery carnation scent that reminds me of my mum's flower garden when I was growing up. I reviewed it here.
Old Cedar Magus - masculine smokey, woody vanilla. Om nom nom. I reviewed it here.
Violet Mallow - I bought this one unsniffed because it's a limited edition and I'm still not 100% I like it. It's heavy on the violet at first but the dry down is a chocolate vanilla gourmand. I talked about it briefly here.
Cenobite - One of my favourite vanillas ever. Not sure if it's number one but it's definitely in the top 3. A super rich, grown up, boozy vanilla. I can't get enough of it. I imagine Ina Garten's kitchen smells like this. And probably Ina herself.
Rose Mallow Cream - This is a smaller premium perfume (5ml, the others are 10ml), and another limited edition I bought unsniffed (I believe both this and Violet Mallow have since been made permanent). Reminds me a lot of MOR Marshmallow but less sickly sweet. I reviewed it here.

Creamy Whipped Soap
I'm not a fan of jars of soap because I don't have a shelf in my shower and it's just annoyingly awkward trying to unscrew lids off things and get product out without it all getting wet and ruined. The only reason I bought this was because Jessica gave me a gift voucher for my birthday and I wanted to try something different along with my regular perfume purchase. I'm glad I did because it's totally worth the palaver. You just scoop out a bit - maybe a tad smaller than an egg, smear it on your shower pouf, and it lathers up like a DREAM. I can't speak for any of the others but the scent I have is Cenobite and it fills the entire bathroom while I'm using it. Rich, creamy vanilla goodness. It does linger ever so slightly on the skin after, but not really enough to make an impact on its own. This soap is also beautifully moisturising. I definitely want more of these.

Burnishing Glace Mists
This is a sort of oil, sort of body mist that dries pretty much immediately on skin and lasts FOREVER. It can also be used as a bath oil but I don't have a bath, so I can't speak for its efficacy there. I have three of these - Lace Draped Spectre, Cenobite, and also Nightgown, which is probably my favourite Solstice Scents fragrance. It's a gorgeous creamy white floral, ultra-feminine and silky. I reviewed the perfume oil version here.

As I was typing this I remembered a couple of things I'd forgotten to include in the photograph (I threw some of the samples in too just because).

Body Ganache
I have this body butter - and it is definitely a butter rather than a lotion - in Ghost, which is not currently listed as in stock. It's their fragrance free version, though not technically completely fragrance free as the cocoa butter in it makes it smell a bit chocolatey. That fades fairly quickly, though. I bought this because I wanted an unscented body moisturiser that wouldn't clash with perfumes. It's very rich and thick and moisturises well, though it can take some time to absorb.

Gardenia Enfleurage
These are teeny samples (.25ml) of a perfume made by this awesome and laborious process. I bought one, and then a week later before I'd even sniffed it ordered two more. I love white floral, I love gardenia, and the thought of having a true gardenia perfume just excited me beyond reason. Needless to say it was very much limited edition (and expensive), but they are currently in the process of making another batch for the next year so it will be back eventually. This stuff is so precious to me I have not even tested it on skin yet! I am waiting for just the right moment. I've sniffed it in the vial though, and it's heavenly. 

So, the facts:

• International shipping is very reasonable, and Angela refunds excess shipping charges. I think the most I've paid is $14.90 and that was the order that included the whipped soap. 
• Delivery is really fast - every one of my orders has been shipped the day after I ordered (sometimes several hours after), and I get them within two weeks. They're always well packed with lots of padding to protect them. 
• You can get a free sample of your choice with every order. I love that you can pick your own instead of getting something random. I know that's fun at times, and there have been perfumes I've discovered through freebies that I would never have thought to buy myself, but it's nice just to be able to grab a little something something that you think you might like without paying. 
• These scents tend to be quite strong, so probably not for the people who want something delicate and barely there. The Glace Mists are, in my experience, even stronger than the perfumes. I bought them with the idea of layering, but they don't even really need to be layered - they more than stand up on their own. 
• Prices are very reasonable - they vary by a few dollars depending on which ingredients are used, but the 10ml perfumes for example are between $9 and about $16US, which is really good for the quality.

If you like indie perfumes and bath products this is definitely a shop worth checking out. My reviews of other perfumes from Solstice Scents can all be found here.

Organising!

A couple of days ago Jacquie and I went for a trek to Ikea to buy some drawer organisers and things to hold makeup brushes and generally just mess about in Ikea and eat meatballs (my first time!). I came home with a bunch of divider things that go in drawers, but rearranging all my makeup in those I decided I didn't like them and wanted something else (lucky they were cheap - I can use them in the kitchen for something). So instead I ordered some Keji document storage things from Officeworks - one with 5 small drawers, and one with 3 small drawers and a larger size drawer.

They arrived this morning, and I've spent some of today organising my stuff in them. I'm really happy with these - they were only $15 each. Bargain!

In this one I have single eyeshadows, sorted roughly by colour: green in top drawer, next blues and purples, then pinks and peaches, then browns, then random other neutrals and some odd colours that don't fit anywhere else (a yellow one I received as a freebie and so on).

This one has most of my other stuff - the top drawer is mascaras, gel eyeliners, lashes, eye primers and brow products. The second drawer has blush, the third face products like primers, foundations and concealers. The bottom larger drawer holds eyeshadow palettes and one stray primer that is too high for the other drawers.

I also tidied up some other stuff while I was there - I'm not overly thrilled with the nail polishes being in a basket all higgeldy piggeldy but I don't paint my nails all that often so it will do until I can be bothered working out something else. In the cups and little spice canisters are (from left) lip glosses, lip pencils, eye pencils, jumbo eye pencils.

I did use one of the drawer organisers to get some currently unused stuff out of the way - a couple of empty jars, some empty eyeshadow sample bags, and brushes I don't use much.

And I finally got around to labelling the top of all my perfume oils, as I keep them in a drawer in a darkish corner and it's a pain in the butt having to pull half of them out to find the one I want.

Not gonna lie, I'm feeling a bit proud of myself!

My Indie Perfume Collection

*Warning - this is a super long, pic heavy post. 

In the last few years I have gone a bit bonkers with indie perfumes, pretty much since I became solidly aware of their existence, really. I've always liked perfume oils, but I never realised they were available outside one's local hippie shop (which for me was Back to Basics in Geelong - their vanilla oil was responsible for a lot of my romantic action throughout a great chunk of the 1990s).

Anyway, after having acquired a ton of perfumes, and then spending a year or so destashing the majority of them, I now have a pretty manageable size collection, and with one or two exceptions, I try to only hang on to those ones I truly love, and either give away or sell whatever I'm not totally gaga over. Today I'm going to show you what I have, for no reason other than I just felt like it. If there's anything in particular you'd like a review of, let me know, though I must warn you that despite my long-standing love of fragrance, I am bloody hopeless at describing them. I'm like Melanie Griffith doing the museum tour in that Simpsons episode ("This room's nice, this room's nice too..."), or those You Tubers who sniff a bottle and say, "This smells - *sniff* - just - *sniff* - it's just amazing!"