Almost used up my Elf banana powder after many years of use.

Now I’m in the market for a new banana powder, preferably pressed, preferably 26mm pan (but not the end of the world if it’s not).

Thanks for any recommendations!

Alright I got a sample of this fragrance and I’m in love….but it’s $40 for an ounce and I’m poor. I’m looking for anything similar to this that is at least somewhat cheaper.

Hi! I’m new to fragrances and just got samples from ajevie- I was wondering if people know what their default scent strength is? I couldn’t find it on their website. I ordered some from cocoa pink and some from hexenacht. I have only tried one cocoa pink sample so far and it seemed really light/gentle to me (which I actually prefer). I think I assumed samples came in the SMAT strength, is that not always true? Does it vary by brand? The scent I tried is “white veil”, if that helps.

Hihi! Like i mentioned in the title of the post I'm a newbie at makeup and I would appreciate advice from makeup girlies! I haven't bought the makeup because I wanted to do research first and I will start to wear it in the next school year. I watched a bunch of beginner friendly tutorials and I got some questions:

- Why do we need to use 2 setting products? referring to powder and spray;

- Is it better to apply foundation with sponge , silicone sponge or brush? if so what type of foundation?( powder , stick or liquid) ;

- am I forced to apply primer before foundation? I'm comtemplating using it because it says it smooths the skin and makes the pores less visible;

- Which product based items should I avoid or harmfull products to not buy. ( I have acne prone skin and oily skin too!);

- Theres many type of mascara brushes and I need one to thicken and volumize them! ;

- Should I buy clear or black mascara?

Thank you if you've read till here and I would appreciate your advice ! If someone wants to know the style of makeup that I want to have is clear / natural makeup !

Siren Song Elixirs “Pistachio Cream”: Pistachio pudding, Cardamom, Sweet Cream, French Vanilla

Initial Sniff:

• This feels like a perfume-leaning take on pistachio for me. The pistachio is bright and cherry-like with a decent amount of nuttiness as well. The cardamom as warm but not too spicy and the sweet cream is quite heavy and slightly indulgent.

Drying Down:

• Not a lot of projection on this one so it was hard to pick up on the notes over time. It was giving a vague sense of a nutty lotion: creamy, milky but not as gourmand as I was expecting. It maintains a perfumey tone throughout the wear with the cream feeling sweet and vanilla-like but a touch inedible if that makes sense. It feels more like a body cream than something you would top a pudding with. In another sense it also feels quite rich and a bit overwhelmingly thick at times. The cardamom fades into the background and the dominating notes for me are a vaguely pistachio, heavy, creamy body butter

A few Hours later:

• This lasted about 3-4 hours on me (dry surfaces) with very little projection. This definitely is more of a bath and body scent in my opinion as I feel it would perform better as a lotiony base underneath a perfume instead of as a perfume itself.

Siren Song Elixirs “Pistachio Cream”: Pistachio pudding, Cardamom, Sweet Cream, French Vanilla

Looking for an indie brand extrait in the US that has real good gourmands.

Hello everyone! First time poster here, I juuuust received my first order for indie perfumes in the mail! I ordered from Alkemia. Mostly a looot of samples. First of all I would like to thank this subreddit for inspiring me to spend my money on this instead of other, not as interesting, things, that it could have been spent on. So thank you.

I am not experienced at all with indie perfumes, but I have been wanting to get into it for years now. I was so excited to receive my order, I checked the tracking every day. I have been having fun sniffing all the samples, I have a notebook organised with printed out scent descriptions and titles ready for note-taking, me and one of my good friends spent an hour just looking through the order when it arrived... a lot of fun.

None of the scents have been particularily offensive so far. Until this evening, when I decided that I would test au lait on the skin. I though that it smelled very strange in the little baby sample bottle, but maybe it would be different on skin...? WRONG! It just got worse and worse! Incredibly sweet, almost sour milk, some cheese maybe? Caramel (in a bad way?) Burnt milk? My head was hurting from the sweetness, I let it stay on for twenty minutes until I had to try and scrub it off, but I could still smell it on my wrist. I tried to get back to what I was doing before but the scent kept sneaking into my nostrils like a little rat crawling. It was very difficult to ignore.

So I decided to try and fix. I received (on accident, it was my mistake for not looking over my order properly), two Arabesque samples. In the scent description, it says that it can be used as a layering note. I remembered this because I have been thinking about only my (new! just established!) perfume collection for weeks now, and had just spent the day gluing scent descriptions into a notebook. So I put Arabesque on top of the au lait disaster. And it smells... really nice? It smells super good? The milk is still there, but it's no longer sour or cloyingly sweet, it does not make me want to throw my nose away out of the window any more. I am not an experienced perfume person so I would not know how to describe the smell in perfume notes, but it's almost... fruity? I have no idea where that comes from. Deep, rich, fruity milk. Kind of.

Anyway, I have now this gross au lait thing and two Arabesque samples. So onto my actual question: do you guys think I could maybe mix them together in the bottle? Or should I just layer them together on the skin? Has anyone tried frankensteining a custom perfume oil before? Or is it a complete no-no? I would like to state that I feel like I really have nothing to lose here, as I feel no urge to keep either samples, one being very offensive to my nostrils and the other being a duplicate.

Would like to hear your thoughts, if you have any. Love from me and hope you are having a nice evening if you bothered to read this entire thing<3

So today I sprayed my beloved Arcana Coven on, but it wore off by lunchtime.

I had Hexcake rollerball in my purse so put some on even though to me it’s a bit sweet.

Oh boy did my class LOVE it!

And then I had a teachers meeting and THEY all loved it.

Plus I used some of the Hexennacht All Souls Night spray when some kids complained a corner of the room smelled bad . That one is smoky though so I’d like get another room mist and another rollerball perfume!

I really prefer fruity and tart, i wear a few gourmands but they have to be blended just right.

What are your faves and why?

Hi!

I really want to try a perfume like Foxcroft from Solstice scents, but they don't ship to the UK - does anyone have any recs for anything like that, or just anything mossyish that I can get in the UK?

Thank you!

Did anyone happen to grab an extra or would be willing to part with theirs? It sold out in one minute. 😭 I was really hoping to get one for my partner for Christmas because they fell in love with their sample. I’m willing to negotiate cost!

Sorry for posting about this again (I posted about Pulp issues a month or so ago) but an email I got from Pulp today made me a bit nervous so I wanted to see how everyone else's orders are doing!

Basically I placed my 1st Pulp order with just a few samples on Sep 1. I have emailed them twice in October but got no response.

Today I got an email from them "to review the order I recently got" but I have no order, and tracking still says it never shipped...

Should I be worried?

I'm still searching for a perfume to love and carry me through the winter.

The only perfume I've ever finished is "Si Passione" by Armani but I've used and liked (not loved) lots of other things. I really enjoy CP's Fruit Loops for summer.

Things I Think I Hate: anything grandma-adjacent, overt florals that turn powdery? I thought I loved Maison Louis Marie No. 13 Nouvelle Vague (Top note: Muguete, Coconut Waters, Lemon, Mid note: Tuscan Fig, Tonka, Agave, Base note: Vetiver, Amber, Santal) until someone told me I smelled like an old lady :( and then I was too sad to wear it. Now it just sits near my computer and smells pretty in the bottle.

Possibly related: I did not enjoy these CocoaPink samples previously: Apricot Eyelet, Indian Donuts. The Un-Red smells so good in the bottle but I think it might be too...sexy for me? I don't think I project the vibe necessary to wear it.

For this winter, I REALLY want to smell as close as possible to a peppermint marshmallow (sweet, mint, vaguely vanilla). I want to embody a peppermint vanilla latte sans coffee. I ordered HoG's Winter Divinity which initially smelled incredible (and still does in the bottle) but it immediately turned to soap on my wrist...sigh.

Here's my tentative list of samples I'm looking to order from CP this winter:

• Black Cherry Upside Down Cake

• Black Forest

• Black Marshmallow

• Black Vanilla

• Coeur de Vahine

• Cotton Candy Dreams

• Cranberry Noel

• Destroying Angel

• Earthstar

• Faded Memories

• Fear of Ghosts

• Fear of Spiders

• Genevieve

• Gooey Caramel

• Halloween in Dublin

• Heavenly Vanilla

• Herbal Essence

• Homicidal Girlfriend

• Marshmallow

• Marshmallow Candy Cane Noel

• Marshmallow Fireside

• Midnight Hag

• Nectarine Blossom & Honey

• Pink Bonfire

• Peppermint Snow Angels

• Witchcraft

• Vintage Halloween

• Vanilla Bean Noel

• Spiritueuse Double Vanilla

Am I missing anything? Any to hard avoid? I sort of aimed to buy a wide variety and see what it landed me.

Thanks for any and all help in advance~

I'm into most everything besides sticky maple scents and overly mature florals.

I’m not sure if it even exists but I am wondering if anyone knows of some perfumes with a smoky lavender vibe?

Any clean / non-toxic perfume (or body balms, sprays) recommendations please? I don't want to smell like a perfume rose. I mean like an actual, living rose in a garden with fresh air. I love the gentle scent of "Iceberg Roses" in my neighborhood.

(I am very sensitive to classic "perfume"s. Most smell chemical-y and bad to me. Living Libations scents I do okay with. Recently tried Dedcool samplers and they all just smelled like a chemical mall sunscreen to me.)

In short, I'd love any recommendations for scents with a strong tomato leaf note, especially any which aren't 'cologne-y'. More context/rambling below if helpful!

My desert island perfume is Les Belles de Ricci: Liberty Fizz by Nina Ricci ...which has tragically been discontinued for something like a decade now, and I don't think any dupes exist. The notes were: Mint, Basil, Tomato Leaf, Orange, Tomato flower, Freesia, Raspberry, Fig Leaf.

I loved everything about it, but i think the tomato leaf being so prominent – particularly in a scent marketed to teenagers – was what made it really special. Well, that and the bottle. It's so fresh and green but also super fun and fruity. (Alas, i'm terrible at describing scents and it's uniqueness is working against me here.)

I've heard that the closest thing to a dupe is Snif's (pizza themed xD) Slice Society but that seems to be literally impossible to get in the UK - so if anyone has any leads for me getting my hands on that I'd be super grateful.

Last minute because I had missed the original sign-ups, and they were looking for another person or two to round out the matches! As with previous years, I had an absolutely delightful time getting to know u/CoffinJumper and putting together a fall/halloween goodie box. Based on what she sent me, I wouldn't have known this is her first exchange! (I have not had bad exchanges btw - she just expressed being a smidge nervous [in a good way].) HOLY MOLY, THE NOISES I MADE. SHE MADE ME AN ISOPOD AMIGURUMI. It can lay flat or curl up!!!! IT'S SO STINKIN' CUTE.

Quick background: I keep isopods, five varieties, and they're my babies. They're not true bugs and I still love them like I do bugs (I've always been a bug kid lol).

That aside, the goodies I got:

• Full size of Cocoa Pink's Black Marshmallow (utterly divine)
• minis/samples/decants of
  • Andromeda's Curse - Wild Child
  • The Strange South's Lavage de Autos, Carrion Son, and Abe Lincoln
  • Fantome's Ectoplasm (super excited for this one - I finally get to understand the hype), Lorelei, the Fox Sisters, and Vasilisa
  • Siren Song Elixirs' Winter Soldier, Grimoire and Infernal Engine
  • four purple/green fountain pen ink samples that I don't remember the names of atm but happy to fill anyone in if they're curious (one of them is scented!!!)
• mini body butter from Fictional Fragrances in Sweets at the Castle (smells like a decadent banana bread and hooboy it's SPARKLY)
• Isopod washi tape - I am so excited to use this for the journal that I keep for my isopods (I'm trying to track my little colonies, okay)
• homemade sauce/glaze for chicken/salmon - bruh, this is so tasty, zingy. I might not share this with my family hahahaha
• Polished stones that she tumbled herself
• A cute shiba letter set
• three tea samplers - an herbal, white, and black blend
• eta because i missed them in the first go around - death's head moth earrings!!!
• handfuls of stickers! SO MUCH CANDY! And she couldn't forget the buckeyes (iykyk)
• BUT THE BEST THING OF ALL..... is this signed photo of one of my favorite indie wrestlers who's getting her moment on AEW, ROH, NJPW.... Hellbent Viva Van!! I completely forgot that this was at the very bottom of my box in a protector, so it looked like the bottom of said box.... So cue me losing my mind the second time when I actually dumped everything out to make sure I didn't miss some stray sticker or candy, and this plops out!

signed Viva Van photo

THE GOODS

When it’s done and I have my finances straighter I’m going to place an order at the Haus of Gloi. Here’s my two “made for you”perfumes I’m thinking of. Any feedback from people who have done this? I’ve never mixed my own perfumes before.

Perfume 1 Strawberry Cinnamon Sugar Vanilla Bean Brown Sugar

Perfume 2 Lavender Marshmallow Vanilla Bean Cashmere

I'm completing a Little Book Eater order and wanted to add one more of the following but can't decide!

• Amelie - sugared raspberries, creme brulee, vanilla, & hazelnut coffee
• The Story Girl - apple wood, citrus, cyclamen, fern, & cedar
• Yule Ball - orange zest, cedar, cinnamon, clove bud, sandalwood, & fir

I absolutely LOVE their Matilda Wormwood (candied lavender, honey, cake batter, orange & vanilla) and get compliments on it all the time. I'm also a fan of their Audrey Horne, which is a pretty straightforward cherry and sandalwood smell but I adore it all the same.

I've tried some of their other scents but haven't quite found ones I love as much as these. If you've tried the mentioned ones, can you let me know what you think of them and whether they fit my profile?

I was so extremely lucky as to get paired with u/Freakymookie for the Fall Exchange. Talking to her was so easy and something I came to look forward to. We have extremely similar tastes, so it was sooooo nice to be sent some scents that had notes I loved that I hadn’t yet tried! This was my first time participating in the Fall Exchange and I truly could not have asked for a better partner. My package was so wonderfully spooky and Halloween themed and I loved it so. I got an abundance of samples to try out, lots of decants, a super cute ghost pin (it glows in the dark!!), adorable spider web earrings, cute little note pads and matching pens, and some yummy candy inside the cutest bat shaped pinata. The vibes in this package were immaculate and I kept everything to be reused bc it was all too cute to get rid of.

Now let’s get into the goods! We picked the $65 tier and decided to also decant scents for each other. I also received a couple samples that were included with orders, which was really nice, TKO came with the BPAL order and I LOOOVE TKO.

u/Freakymookie took into account the scent notes that meshed well with me and made sure to grab from houses that I hadn’t quite explored yet, which was so exciting. It seems I overlooked some really divine scents from Poesie in the past and my eyes have been opened fully. Versailles has become a fast favorite that I need to FS!

I got so many different scents from multiple houses, including houses that I missed the chance to try. Here’s the haul! Alkemia: Calliope, Carnival of Illustrious Hearts, Ecstasies of Light, Evening Song, Foxfire, Ghostfire, The Magpie’s Rhyme, and Moonlust. BPAL: TKO, Eat Me, and The Antikytherma Mechanism. Luvmilk: Moon Milk. Poesie: Comfort, Versailles, Madar, Secret Boyfriend, and Sleepy Ghost. Arcana: Frigg. Astrid: Carousel(I’m so excited for this one!), Lavender Sigh, and  Dream, Beautiful. Colornoise: Cereal Milk. Death and Floral: Bombyx Moth Vanilla Cake, and Nobody’s Happy in a Poodle Skirt and Sweater set. Haus of Gloi: Custom. Hex: All Soul’s Night, Black Mass. Poesie: Chill Ghost. Stereoplasm: Sick of Love. The lovely earrings and pin came from DesireTedesco.etsy.com.

This has been such a fun experience! Thank you so much u/Freakymookie, you’re the best!

These are my thoughts on the scents that were bought for me.  Spoiler Alert! Everything is amazing. I didn’t want to make this post toooo long so I will try and put my thoughts on the decants in the Sotd thread!

Poesie- Secret boyfriend: Love at first sniff my only problem with this one is that it doesn’t stick around long enough.

Alkemia- Calliope: Smells like floral cotton candy on me, I like this one.

Alkemia- Moonlust: This smells like salty skin! Such a good skin scent, I love this one.

Alkemia- The magpie’s rhyme: This smells like almond cake on me with a hint of cashmere. I like this one.

Alkemia-Evening song: This one is so nice! The myrrh note reminds me of lemon pledge, but the cashmere note smooths that out nicely once it dries down.

Poesie- Comfort: Peppery cashmere, very nice dry down. I will be slathering this one all over.

Luvmilk- Moon milk: I don’t really gravitate towards cinnamon notes personally, so this is a little bit of a change. The cinnamon note doesn’t overpower anything, and this is really lovely. You have opened my nose to different notes u/Freakymookie and I’m so thankful for that. I have so much more to explore now!

Alkemia- Ghost fire: I absolutely love this one. It’s become a favorite very fast. I’ve been wearing this for days now. This reminds me of NAVA Eternal Ankh which is another one of my favorites. I’m so so glad you picked this one to FS, you get me! It also does remind me of Loup-Garou by Hex, I’m a fiend for white amber.

Poesie- Madar: The rice note in this is so yummy. Super cozy with the cinnamon note.

Poesie- Versailles: mmmm the citrus in this is in fact intoxicating. 100% need to slather this one.

BPAL- Eat me: Somehow this smells like tootsie rolls on me, but I kinda dig it.

Alkemia- Foxfire: I love it! I’ve found myself more drawn to aldehydes lately and I’m really loving this one. An easy reach for sure.

Alkemia- Ecstaties of light: I love this one so much. The honeysuckle note in this scent is absolutely swoon worthy. I need a FS of this one for sure.

Alkemia- Carnival of illustrious hearts: This one is so good. I’ve already drained the sample hahah.

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An open thread for all conversations!

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.

Hello, IMAM!

Many of us shop more during times of stress, and many of us are more stressed than usual these days. The Mod Team would like to provide a space for community members (including ourselves!) to discuss coping with stress as we try to stick to our personal and financial goals.

Financial Planning

If you are interested in financial planning (e.g., making a budget, managing debt, setting and reaching savings goals), check out r/personalfinance. Their wiki is a great resource.

Having Fun with Your Collection

Here are some ideas about how to explore your collection and/or connect with the indie community that do not involve spending:

• Re-organize your collection. If you have a lot of samples, separate the ones you haven’t tested yet, the ones you want to destash, and the ones you’d like to keep/upgrade.
• Start a collection spreadsheet. Here is an example!
• Start an indie journal. Make note of which indie products you use every day. At the end of the month/season/year, tally up your “biggest hits” and share them on IMAM or another community.

"Shopping" without Spending

If you find that the act of shopping and submitting orders is hard to resist, you might consider trying one of the following strategies:

• “Window shop": build a wishlist on the brand’s website (e.g., Etsy, Silk Naturals, BPAL have this feature); save your favourites to a Pinterest board or document them in a spreadsheet.
• “Shop” at your local library: if your library has an online catalogue, browse through it and put items on hold, check out digital resources, or create a list of titles you’d like to check out. Perhaps you'd like to challenge yourself to learn more about perfume, makeup, or cosmetic chemistry!

Please share your challenges, strategies, struggles, and successes with us!

I’ve seen a few with hay notes, but I want that almost sweet alfalfa smell specifically. I’m fine with the alfalfa not being the main focus as long as it’s present : )

Hi! I've recently been discovering the wonderful world of indie perfume. All of the reviews here have been so amazing and helpful! I'm hoping you may be able to recommend some scents/houses as it can also be a little overwhelming!

I'm looking for a lavender scent that is also sweet - like lavender sugar, lavender tonka, lavender marshmallow, but one that doesn't smell like a lavender vanilla candle (if that makes sense).

My absolute favorite scents so far are Sucreabeille's Moon Magic and She's a Witch, and Affaire de Couer by Alkemia. :)

Thank you in advance for any recs!

I got this sample in my latest order, and was wondering if anyone knew what it might be. “Enchanted Ink” is in the description of Haunted Forest, but my order was a Haunted Forest EDP, so I’d be puzzled if the oil was also included as a sample. Am I overthinking this? Or is this a Haunted Forest spinoff, since it seems like Julia’s been interested in exploring and reinterpreting existing perfumes?