The Pumpkin Hollow

Musings on Aromaleighs Dismantlement/Closing

2010-07-01T01:26:00.006-04:00

In case you hadn't heard, Aromaleigh is in the process of shutting down.

Melodramatic exit stage left farewell post.

Bunch of middle aged women with too much time on their hands. The lot of them. This includes Miss K, everyone at Rant4theUgly, and just everyone in blogs whose attacking one side or the other. Because lets face it both sides have behaved badly.

Long and the short of it is: There was an ingredient listed in the Rocks! collection not approved for eye area use that an owner of another company saw and then SHIT started, factions formed, and the bitching commenced. Miss K (the owner of Aromaleigh) is going through a divorce and Aromaleigh goes terminal.

I think that Aromaleighs owner shouldn't have made herself the face of Aromaleigh, while it does allow her customer base to feel a more intimate connection with the company it also puts a big ass target on her forehead. She divulged more of her personal life online than I think someone should and has personally come out against the business practices of another cosmetic hawker (Limecrime) which I think was unwise. She should have left the issue of repackaging up to the consumer review sites and bloggers. Then when another business owner questions her ingredients list its LimeCrime all over again! Mindless fan girls versus "truth seekers" (aka I have too much time on my hands lets start some shit and bring this bitch down).

That being said I am truly sorry to see Aromaleigh close. It was the company that introduced me to mineral makeup and the delightful euphoria inducing qualities of bright sparkly eye makeup. It seemed that Aromaleigh had so many plans for the future hot-stamping their jars, reformulating the Rocks! collection (speaking of which is it safe to use my rocks!? I'd really like to know!), and releasing and formulating new collections.

I don't believe that bitchy women on the internet could cause a successful company to shut down and in such a hurry too. Its more than likely an upcoming divorce and the equitable division of assets (not the first time a divorce has been the cause of a business being sold off and shut down) or financial trouble with the company is the cause. Whichever it is I am sad that Aromaleigh will be leaving and that everyone is being such a ASSHAT about it.

Just the two cents of a gal who ain't too entrenched in the blogosphere or forum factions!

Shit just got real.

2010-03-13T16:58:00.004-05:00

Basically no other company fits my particular eyeshadow tastes like Archetype does. They understand that what a girl really wants is complex colors with contrasting glitter! They make my dream eyeshadows! Pixie Poop? Kitten Toes? Weeping Willow? A scrumptious pale minty green with pink sparks! (I have what I can only describe as a serious hard-on for mint green/baby pink and purple/green color combo's). But after the order I placed in December just flat out never came I'll admit I was a little disenchanted.

Word in the blogosphere as of late is that Archetype Cosmetics is back up and has been filling ALL THEIR ORDERS relatively quickly. So I caved and placed an order on March 8th. Imagine my surprise when I get an e-mail from paypal on the 12th that my package FROM ARCHETYPE has been shipped!

Guess what I got in the mail today as in the 13th?

Needless to say I once again did the dance of joy.

Very few companies fill and ship orders this quickly and the last company I'd expect this from is Archetype given its track record. So today I find myself pleasantly surprised and pretty gleeful. Everything was there + two extra samples and aside from the sifter being loose in Kitten Toes everything was just ducky.

Then pigs flew and hell froze over.

I got an email from the ladies at Archetype. No joke. Basically after how quickly I got an order I placed in November I placed another on on December 7th which I never received. Because I'm a COMPLETE scatterbrain I missed the deadline to file a paypal claim and so it seemed I was out $24. Then came todays e-mail. It was from the owner Holly basically saying that several orders from that week in December had also not been filled due to an error and she offered to either fill my order, give me a store credit, or issue a refund. She also offered to include three additional jars with the order I placed today of my choosing! Since in between the order I placed on the 8th and the one I placed today I already have everything from my missing order I just asked for a refund. Literally minutes after I sent my e-mail asking for a refund she issued it.

O.O

I'm still alive!

2010-03-11T14:05:00.004-05:00

I am I SWEAR! And I still intend to keep up with this blog but things with school have been CRAZY lately and then work on top of it has kept me less than productive... I have tons of ideas and posts already written up I just need to get some day light to take pics of the looks and swatches. Daylight for me is hard to come by... thanks to the vampiric hours I keep.

I have four looks coming up! Inspired by some awesome fictitious ladies! I've been wanting to do a series of character inspired looks starting with:

*Lady Vengeance (A look inspired by the heroine from a Chan-wook Park film!)

*Jessica Rabbit (I dyed my hair a super vibrant red and the other day while putting on some red lipstick I realized I looked like someone...)

*Re-l Mayer (From one of my favorite sci-fi animated series! Look for lots of BLUE eyeshadow)

*Lulu (The sexiest black mage in FF history)

Also I just wanted to say I am VERY sorry to hear that Aromaleigh is Discontinuing its lip products ;~; I had always bought samples but for some reason just never invested in a full tube. For Christmas my friend Cara bought me some Aromaleigh, including a lippie and I absolutely ADORE them! The colors are so sheer and pretty and the tubes are really kind of slim and elegant and the formula is VERY moisturizing. Get them before their gone!

I've been a bad bad girl...

2010-01-17T00:54:00.004-05:00

*SHOEGASM*

I have three lovely pairs of dr. martens already... a standard black pair of 1460's (which EVERY girl should own imho) and the most killer post apocalyptic boots... Thema in both grey and oxblood. But Dr. Marten has REALLY outdone themselves with the skelly boot! GLOW IN THE DARK BONES. Also they zip! I am always reticent to buy boots that high without a zip closure because I just couldn't see myself lacing up 14 holes everyday. I love heels and all that jazz but combat boots for me are really the bees knees!

They were... *gulp* $140 but I was a good girl and DID NOT CHARGE THEM and my pay off debt resolution has gone surprisingly well thus far... and... they were glow in the dark! Everyone knows I'm a shameless whore for glow in the dark! And I wear my dm's practically EVERY DAY! And their leather which means sturdy! I know I know... I dun wrong but I've had my eye on these bad boys for a while... I HATE zappos for telling you exactly how many they have in stock because then I panic and think oh god I'm going to miss out!

But... I didn't... BECAUSE THEY'RE MINE! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

BIG IN KOREA!

2010-01-01T20:28:00.014-05:00

I love foreign makeup products! They really show that our particular standard of beauty and views of femininity aren't the only ones out there. Over here products like bronzer and gradual self tanning lotions are big sellers but if you looked elsewhere you'd find that moisturizers with high SPF and whitening toners and lotions dominate the market.

One company I absolutely ADORE is the Korean brand Etude House. I found them while researching BB cream (Korean wonder product) a while back, they lured me in with their ultra cutesy names, packaging, and colors. The brand offers a wide variety of cosmetics, skincare, perfumes, and even shampoo!

When I purchased my Etude house products I had to go through Ebay to get them but now they have a US retail site! Not all of their products are available unfortunately, but most are! Including some of my absolute favorites!

Looks Delicious right? Well its is! Peach Water Gloss has a really great texture, its not super tacky or sticky but smooth with a really nice wet look finish it comes in five different colors of which I only have one. That being said I think I can say pretty definitively that no. 5 Peach Milk is THE BEST. Its so natural and pretty it really is a milky peach color that looks so beautiful on and the piece de resistance? It smells like peaches! Well... actually Peach-O's

But if you've had Peach-O's before you know they smell delicious.

As you can tell by the peach color packaging, peach colored/tinted cosmetics, and peach scent Etude House really has a yin for the fuzzy fruit. Oddly enough this gloss isn't the only peach scented item in their line. They also have a peach scented pressed powder and pore minimizing base. No joke.

This brings me to: Etude House's Peach Skin Pact (Yep pact. Which every time I go to blot the shine I always think of blood pacts...) The packaging is peach and pink and surprisingly sturdy

it comes with a puff applicator. The powder also has a peach undertone to it and only comes in one very fair shade which is great for me bad for the darker skinned ladies. It has great staying power and just looks lovely on me, and of course it smells like peaches! But if the peach packaging, peach undertone, and peach scent just isn't enough peach for you FEAR NOT! The pressed powder is embossed with a... PEACH!

Yep that's a WHOLE lot of peach. Oddly enough it doesn't seem overkill.

Unfortunately one of Etude House's products that I really really like their Pore Erasing Peach Base has been discontinued! I'm not sure why, its very highly reviewed and the product I see lots of US ladies with but c'est la vie. It packaging is not especially practical... however so cute you really won't mind. It comes in a jar and is a VERY thick peach scented cream.

They include a little mini spoon with it so you can scoop it out which is both completely necessary (good luck using your fingers) and more hygienic. The base comes in two colors, mint and peach (only the mint is still in stock on the Etude House site).

This is a great foundation base for me, since my skin has peach/yellow undertones. I melt it on the back of my hand after I scoop some out and apply it with my fingers and a sponge. It takes some practice to get the coverage to be even but once you get the hang of it you'll have super dolly skin. I fear however if you were to try and acquire this through ebay now you'd face some super hiked up prices. They do have new bases, Baby Skin Base and Dream On Base which seems to be more liquidey and come in a pump bottles which is maybe why the Pore Erasing Peach Base is being phased out.

Another product I LOVE but is sadly missing from Etude's US site is their Peach Cheek Blusher in no. 4 Smile Peach. Smile peach has very little shimmer so it won't hi light imperfections too. Its packaging is peach of course but also a little strange.

The blush is basically a stamp, the blush is in the bottom and the top unscrews off which has a spring loaded circular sponge applicator (its really funny to just stamp the circles on... you look like a marionette) You can pick these up on ebay for around $10-$15 (thats including shipping) I love smile peach and... excuse me ... ... ... ... ... sorry just popped over to ebay to pick up Happy Peach. I'm sure the pinks are lovely as well but pink blushes on me tend to go horribly awry on me and my SUPER pink face (I think a good portion of my blood supply just kinda stays up there.

Etude House with its sugary sweet walking the fine line of being vomit inducingly cute but never crossing peachacentric cosmetics are not like anything we've seen here. I can't really think of a brand that celebrates and encapsulates being young and ultra femme quite like Etude House does.

Count on some super in depth Etude House reviews and updates, they have a newer collection Code B thats really sweet and kind of Bond, James Bondish and some really killer looking mascaras. So I'm adding Etude House to the list of Fine War Paint Purveyors!

Oh yeah and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Alice in Wonderland + Urban Decay

2009-12-22T01:44:00.012-05:00

Movie/Makeup tie ins seems to be getting pretty big these days. Some major cosmetic brands are doing the double branding promotions. Duwop released a Twilight lip venom and there are blushes, eyeshadows, mascara, etc. all slapped up with twilighty packaging in the hopes of cashing in thats to a rabid fan base.

Urban Decay is doing more of something I can get on board with. (I'm not a Twilight fan in the least) On the 28th they're releasing an Alice in Wonderland palette at Sephora as a tie in for the upcoming Tim Burton film. The movies not even released yet and it already has makeup merch... if thats any indication how HUGE this movie is going to be... I'm definitely not risking life and limb to see this opening weekend.

I probably won't purchase... Urban Decay is pretty spendy. While the packaging is to die for Urban Decay shadows have never been my thing (I like complex colors with contrasting sparks, like Aromaleighs Death Valley. Oh man my recent rocks haul... I could go on for days on the sheer awesomeness of it!) I'd probably have quite a few dupes as well which would be my main reason for not purchasing. But if you don't have a massive array of shadows and dig Alice I'd pick this up it comes with what looks like two mini's of their 24/7 liners (which are awesome) and their godly primer potion. It's too bad this won't be released before christmas because I have a friend who I know would just love this.

MAAAAAIIIIILLL TIIIIIME!!!!!!

2009-12-15T02:15:00.011-05:00

I am officially in LOVE with Hi Fi Cosmetics! I took advantage of their black fridayish sale, buy one at $4.99 get one shadow free!

My buy one:

My get one free:

But wait! There's more, srsly aside from 4 sample baggies another full sized jar was kicked in with my order!!!!!!!!

I believe this was done to compensate for the length of time it took for me to receive my order but there was a death in the owners family which she convoed me on etsy about and left a notice on her store front. I expected a wait because I imagine she'd be inundated with orders after thanksgiving and I'm a patient girl so the extras weren't necessary but TOTALLY appreciated.

These colors go beautifly together and I have the feeling that the owner put some thought into choosing Jenny as opposed to just chucking in any old thing. Also Hi Fi has THE most accurate swatch colors I have ever seen!

I also got THE BEST blue lipstick!!! Its a Corpse Bride blue with a purple pearl frost to it. Yay ebay/discontinued sephora lipstick!!!!!! I've got 5 other shades from this line all acquired via ebay (1 more blue, 2 green, 2 yellow!? Yes yellow) If you want odd hued lipstick this is your line my friend! My collection of wacky colored lipstick grows... now if I could just find occasion to wear it...

50% off Rocks!!!

2009-12-13T16:37:00.006-05:00

All day today Aromaleigh rocks eyeshadows are all 50% off!!! This includes full sizes and samples! Rocks is by far my FAVORITE Aromaleigh collection ever! It is the largest so it does have a huge variety but it has great mattes and some of THE BEST ultra glitzy shadows.

Some of my favorties are Andrenochrome, lazysod, downward spiral, estranged, fanclub, helterskelter, strychnine, and avalon. (of the few I've tried so far!) I'm DEFINATELY going to place a SMALL order. But keep in mind there are 11 more days of 50% off sales on 11 other collections so.... choose wisely!

Miss-X Cosmetics

2009-12-10T12:54:00.009-05:00

In the wake of the limecrime repackaging scandal I went from totally unaware of repackaging to hyper aware. Who's doing it, where their getting there pigments from, how to identify people who are repackaging mica.

It was also around this time I discovered Miss-X Cosmetics. I knew some of her products looked familiar (gel liners & brush sets) so I decided to e-mail her and ask her straight out.

A question about Miss-X Cosmetics.

Spooky Pumpkin

to amelia

show details Dec 3 (7 days ago)

Hi! Basically I'm a huge makeup junkie, I have tons of it and I'm always looking out for new brands. I found yours through Shrinkle and as I browsed through your products I found some things that looked familiar. I own your International Playgirl 5 piece brush set, except I didn't buy it from you. I bought it on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350136376360#ht_1106wt_941

I also noticed your gel liners look very familiar as well, very similar to the gel liners coastal scents sells.

Debaser = Stellar

Knives Out = Platinum

Tormentor = True Black

Violator = Deep Plum

Impeached = Peach Bellini

Brave New World = Envious

Break And Enter = Sky Line

Tight Fit = Turquoise

etc.

There's been several makeup repackaging scandals going through the online makeup community as of late, I am in no way implying you don't blend your pigments yourself or anything like that but as for the finished prepackaged things like the brushes and gel liners its pretty evident they're purchased from wholesalers. I've go no problem with this its just that when I see someone discussing your line and someone fervently says and believe you make everything yourself and are saving up their hard earned cash to purchase something it makes me feel a little unsettled. Mostly because coastal scents sells the same gel liners for $6.95. I don't want to smear your company. I don't want to scream from the rooftops anything. I just want people to know whats up. Maybe removing the claim that they're manufactured in your laboratories would make things seem a bit more legit. And who knows making the prices a little more recession friendly?

I've e-mailed companies before asking questions about their products and some even about possible repackaging and while I almost always get polite responses on product inquiries anything having to do with repackaging is flatly ignored. So imagine my shock when I actually got a response from Miss Arsenic.

Amelia Arsenic

to me

show details 4:57 PM (20 hours ago)

Hey there!

Thanks for contacting me! Sorry for the slightly delayed reply but I'm glad to finally be able to answer your email.

Firstly to answer your question about the brush sets. Yes I have had a few people ask me about that similar set from ebay. I unfortunately have found out that the manufacturer who manufactures my brushes and many other brushes for other makeup brands, has also been selling remainders or seconds to various wholesalers which I have no control over. These wholesalers have been selling on ebay, which actually devalues the my product, as the people on ebay are selling it for a lot less than it cost me to manufacture them originally. So, I am in the process of switching brush manufacturers who I hope will sign an exclusivity clause so that they don't resell seconds or remainders onwards. We are actually having to discontinue many of our brushes because of this current problem! (It's a total headache to tell you the truth).

Secondly, in regards to the gel eyeliners, coastal scents are not our supplier. We used to have more colours which we used to get manufactured for us, however we are now only stocking our best sellers at the moment at the link below:http://blackpillredpill.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_5

It does look like many of the colours that we used to stock (but don't stock anymore) were similar to some of coastal scents colours, it could be possible that we share the same contract manufacturer. However, I can definitely say that we do not buy or repackage from coastal scents. I do not have pictures up of our latest packaging, but it is actually quite different looking from the Coastal scents line. Originally we had to buy quite generic looking jars (which were similar to Coastal Scents) however as time has progressed, we have been able to develop our own.

In regards to your question about whether I actually make the cosmetics. I do hand make all of the pigments! However, I do not actually have the facilities to make gel eyeliner as it is a hot pour cosmetic that needs to be manufactured. Instead, I have developed the colours and contracted manufacturers to make the colours for us to our specifications. The colours we are most proud of are Debaser, Myxamatosis and Violator (all of which are not found on the coastal scents site).

I'm not sure if you are in the US, but we have just made our cosmetics available from a US based website if you or your friend were interested which might make it more affordable for you.
http://blackpillredpill.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4

Regarding your comment about pricing, we are a company based in Sydney Australia and the prices of cosmetics are much more than they are in the states. We have a few more expenses because of distance and need to build distribution, wholesale and retail margins into our costing. However, we will probably be reducing some of our prices and offering more special deals in the upcoming months.

Thanks for emailing me, and I hope I managed to answer your questions!

XX

I'm very happy she did take the time to answer my questions and then some I didn't ask and that she has made a US based website. The prices on the US site are also lower (I feel so bad for Aussies! Everything seems to be more expensive there! Even Trent Reznor said so!) and everything is listed as simply manufactured by: miss-x. Unfortunately the US site doesn't have all the eyeshadows listed yet either. I'll be trying out some of her products in the future and reporting back!

The Curious Case of Archetype Cosmetics

2009-12-07T21:19:00.006-05:00

Beautiful highly pigmented complex eye-shadows for only $3.75 and samples for $0.25 as well as a line of foundations and lip-glosses Archetype seems to be an online mineral makeup junkies dream. I dare you to not go to their site and drool over their pictures and descriptions.

But of course there's a catch. They have very poor customer service... thats not really accurate. To put it bluntly: ARCHETYPE COSMETICS HAS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. At all. Doesn't exist. Shoot them an e-mail, it will go unanswered. While the site may say they'll send you an invoice they won't. And while they say they fill orders according to when they were received thats not exactly accurate either. 1. Because you may just not receive your order at all(i.e. Grey) and 2. You may get it months after you placed your order (i.e. Phyrra), or you may just get it in a timely 13 days like I did. O.o

When I placed my order with Archetype I knew partially what I was getting into on Nov. 25th. I knew you may not see your order for a while and that responses to inquiries were often ignored. Still I was like a moth to the flame. All those pink shadows with green iridescence and sparkle and vise versa (my dream eye-shadow and IMPOSSIBLE to find) I HAD to place an order. I got three full sized Halloween collection shadows (they aren't available in sample form) and a whole slew of samples from their permanent color collection.

It was only AFTER I placed my order that I actually began heavily researching the company and found some very disheartening things. People saying that they simply never received anything at all and that by the time they thought to file a paypal claim, paypal said it was too late. I hate seeing people gypped or scammed. And while I am a very patient girl and could wait a month or two for my shadows I didn't want to walk away empty handed.

I actually called the antique store where Archetype fills orders on the 27th. I was wondering if Archetype was still operating out of there or if they had moved around or if something had happened to cause the communication break down. I expected to get a machine where I could leave a message but I actually got someone who worked at the antique store and she transfered my call to Holly Regan the proprietor of Archetype. I was really surprised and fumbled through asking if they were still there before hanging up. I had to keep myself from blurting out SO WHY ARE YOU RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE GROUND!?

After that I just resigned myself to waiting. If I didn't receive anything by Jan. 7th I'd file a claim with paypal and let them sort it out.

So imagine my shock when in addition to lovely box from TKB I also got a bubble mailer from Archetype in the mail today! Shock. Awe. Hell, I did the dance of joy and I am not ashamed to admit it.

My order came with an invoice and a thank you as well as neatly package 5 gram jars which were sealed so no spills and my sample baggies. I did make the mistake of requesting Halloween collection shadows as free samples without realizing that they didn't come in sample form (some of the Halloween collection from years past have been moved into the permanent collection (BraaAAINS! for example) and those you can get samples of). They were kind enough to include some anyways: Pink Insanity, Veil of Shadows, Lilith's Daughter, and Limp. However if they kept in touch with their customers I could have been informed and reselected my free samples, so the good is cancelled out by that pesky lack of customer service.

Everything was BEAUTIFUL. I've purchased from a lot of different companies and have received shadows I either already had or were too close to something I already had I was experiencing mineral eye-shadow burn out. If I looked at something it would only be mattes because I knew I didn't have many. Sparkly rainbow shades are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Archetype manages to blend unique colors that aren't redundant.

I'll admit I placed another order with Archetype for some full sizes of the samples I was impressed with. I will also admit I kept my order under $25 for fear I'd never see anything from my order. If you do decided to take the chance and order from Archetype keep your order small, if you receive nothing within 45 days FILE A PAYPAL CLAIM, and if you feel really uneasy I'd suggest calling the antique mall where they are located and speak to Mrs. Regan personally. But if all this will they won't they is too much for you there are plenty of other reputable MMU companies that are affordable and have an amazing selection of colors AND CUSTOMER SERVICE! Aromaleigh, Detrivore and Meow Cosmetics to name a few.

tl;dr

Archetype Cosmetics: Purchase at your own risk.

Things to come:

2009-12-07T16:27:00.004-05:00

Fyrinnae Review

Detrivore Review

Spell Cosmetics Review

Pure Luxe Review

Sobe Botanicals Review

Archetype Review

Some FOTD & EOTD and some NYX Round Lipstick Swatches.

White Whale! HOLY GRAIL!

2009-12-05T17:30:00.004-05:00

I didn't know it then but at the tender age of 4 or 5 the seed of a makeup quest would be planted. The place? My pink bedroom with kitten border paper in front of the warm glow of my brothers SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) playing the newest cartridge we'd rented from the local video store. The game? Final Fantasy II.

This game had everything a little girl could want. Lancers, dark knights, power hungry kings, air ships, SPOONY BARDS, monsters, and genocide.... wait WHAT!? Yep true story. The king of Baron sends our unwitting hero Cecil, dark knight, commander of the red wings, and all around bad ass with best bud Kain to the village of mist to deliver a "ring" after Cecil begins to question the kings orders in attacking apparently peaceful nations. Lo and behold the ring is actually a bomb ring that kills the Mysdians (summoners) in the village all save one brave... green haired little girl.

Rydia. She was powerful, wise beyond her years, kind, and wore head to toe green. Even her hair was green. For a little girl whose favorite color was green its pretty obvious how she became my favorite character. I cried when she found out her mother had been killed mistakenly by our intrepid heros, rooted for her in turn based combat, and was DEVASTATED when she fell into a whirlpool and left the party. But did Rydia drown? Was she swallowed by Leviathan never to be heard from again? NO! Our green heroine was taken to the Feymarch where she grew up at a hyper accelerated rate and returned to the group more powerful and scantily clad than before!

WTF does any of this have to do with makeup? PLENTY. Grown up Rydia showed a penchant for... you guessed it GREEN LIPSTICK. Yoshitaka Amano who does a lot of the concept art for Final Fantasy games dreamed up the monochromatic heroine and ever since I have realized that I need green lipstick.

Unfortunately for years all that I could find were dark unflattering halloween tubes of dubious quality. But its a Brave New World for makeup! and video games! (Final Fantasy II now known as Final Fantasy IV got a makeover for the NDS and a SEQUAL for the Wii in delicious 16-bit) Small companies are making things massive conglomerates would never dream of producing. So I'm setting out to find my HG green lipstick! Expect some serious green lippie reviews in the future.

Oh the good old days...

2009-12-05T02:42:00.000-05:00