Collective Hauls: Coastal Scents, Walgreens…

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been celebrating the haul-a-days early. I hit up a few drugstore  sales, and took advantage of Cyber Monday sales. I love when brands such as Wet N Wild and Jane go BOGO Free, because it doesn’t happen as much with Revlon. Anyway here are my hauls from the past few weeks.

The first things I bought were a new foundation, because I am getting a little tired of my Aubrey Nicole foundation. I still love it, but I just wanted a change, something for the winter months. So when I saw that CVS was doing a promotion with Maybeline Power Mineral Liquid foundation, I decided to give it a whirl. I picked up color Nude – which is just about a perfect match for me. It’s as good as it’s going to get in drugstore foundations. I liked the foundie so much, that I ended up picking up a second bottle during the sale.

(Review of this foundie is coming soon)

Another haul that I picked up was from Walgreens. Since Walgreens and CVS are right next to each other, it makes it really easy to hit up both of these stores at the same time. For this week, Walgreens has Wet N Wild on sale for BOGO Free, and had a bunch of stuff that is being discontinued on clearance. One of the things I love about Walgreens is that when something is on clearance it also is still eligible for the BOGO Free sales. So I managed to score four of the twist up stick blushes that are being discontinued for about a $1 a piece. I also grabbed up two of the Loreal Colour Juice sheer lipsticks. I am not sure if these are being discontinued, but I snapped up two of them for $4.99. I love this things, they are quite pigmented and super glossy. I also love the taste and smell of these things. Very fruity.

I also got in my first haul from Coastal Scents today as well. I had heard some extremely good things about their new Gel Liners, and many beauty gurus on youtube had mentioned that they were basically good dupes for MAC Fluidlines, and were half the price of the Fluidlines. The Gel Liners are normally $6.95, and I picked up 6 of the ten colors that they are offering, I didn’t get their black, brown or light blue colors, because I already have all the HIP creme liners and I still have a ton of my creme liners left. So I focused on the other colors, getting the silver, gold and other colors that I didn’t have. I’ve played with some of the colors earlier today and they apply very much like the Fluidlines I already have. I plan on giving my new Gel Liners a better test tomorrow. I also picked up two eyeliner brushes from Coastal Scents as well, because someone recommended them to me to use with the liners. Since I didn’t have any decent slanted eyeliner brushes, I bit the bullet and grabbed them at $1.85 a piece. I like them a lot, and I plan on writing a review of them soon.

I also grabbed some new fragrance oils, because I LOVE burning oils. I love these as much as makeup. They are like crack to me! I knew that Coastal Scents sold fragrance oils and they were only $3 for 2 oz bottle, which is a total steal compared to Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop and Yankee Candle. I picked up two scents, White Plum and English Holly, and both are amazing. They filled my room with fragrance quickly and kept the scent going for several hours. I was very pleased.

Finally, I hit up the new store in my local mall, Fragrant Body Oilz, which I have mentioned previously on this blog. I purchased 6  bottles of 1 oz oils for $20, which is also a really good deal. I am trying these oils out, and I plan on writing more about them in the future. So far I am really pleased with my purchases and I plan on making more in the future. Other fragrance oils fanatics would love this company

Twilight & Fragrant Body Oilz

Unless you have been living underneath a rock these past several months, you would know that a little movie called TWILIGHT had its opening weekend this past few and the movie that cost $35 million to make, ended up raking in $70.1 million on its opening weekend. I saw the movie three times over the past four days. Once on Friday, Sunday & Monday and I can honestly say that the movie gets better and better with each viewing of it. I honestly have no idea how I am going to be able to last until May when the movie comes out on DVD.

Anyway – last night I was wondering around the mall before the movie and I came across this new store that just opened on Saturday called, Fragrant Body Oilz, and they specialize in fragrance oils and body care. I am CONSTANTLY looking for new fragrance oils, I think I like fragrance oils more than makeup! GASP! Anyway – I wandered into the store and I was surrounded by hundreds of jars of scents. I believe the company makes over 500 different fragances.

It was INCREDIBLE!

I didn’t get a good look at everything in the new store, but I did hit the internet today and I googled for their online store. I was impressed with how much this store offers online. Not only do they have the huge amount of scents, but they offer many, many ways to purchase these scents. They have fragrance oils to burn, body sprays, body butters, body scrubs, hand sanitizers and many other formats. I also got a better look at the different scents that Fragrant Body Oilz offers. When I was in the brick and mortar store, I didn’t take my time to look at every category. But online, I discovered that they offer just about every scent you could ever want. One of the more interesting things to me, was that they offer many Bath & Body Works clones. Several of the ones they offer look to be discontinued scents, so if the quality is there, this would be a great place to stock up on scents that you are missing.

I personally have not used any of Fragrant Body Oilz products, but I plan on picking up some stuff in the new future, whenever I get back over to the mall. Their instore prices are amazing for the amount of the product that they are offering. I believe that for one ounce of oil in store is $4.99 and that if you purchase two of them, you get one free. So I am definitely going to take advantage of that.

Anyway – enough of rambling. Head on over to Fragrant Body Oilz to check out their huge selection and then after that, get your tushy over to the local movie theatre to check out Twilight, cause that movie is AWESOME!

Dark Candles Haul

The Dark Candles haul I ordered back in October finally came in on Saturday and needless to say, I was thrilled. When I first made my order, I wasn’t aware of the fact that they have a 3 to 4 week turnaround. So it took my order three weeks to ship out, which seems like a long time, but when all the products are handmade and made to order, the three weeks waiting time is very reasonable. My order was shipped out on Thursday and I got it Saturday by FedEx.

So yea, I’m not going to complain. Since this was my first order with DC, I wanted the chance to smell her scents before deciding to purchase oils or body care. So what I did was purchase many of her scents in wax tarts – which were $1 a piece. I ended up getting like 17 different tarts. She has over 20 permanent scents – not including limited edition and seasonal ones. So I got most of her scents to try them. The price of everything including shipping came out to be $20 and change. When I made my order, Helena, the owner of DC had a 25% off discount. So my order was about $5 less than it normally would be if I ordered everything full price.

Here is a full list of every scent that I got:

Amber Velvet™ (dark purple)

A deep amber softened with a layer of tender velvet and a touch of citrus-y bergamot and vanilla.

Apparition™ (dark purple)
The Madame of the Manor has decided to make her appearance. A sophisticated, feminine, and haunting blend of a time long forgotten with sweet ginger plums amplified by a strong black tea and soft, fragrant marigolds.

Arachne’s Garden™ (dark purple)
A mysterious floral garden with some dewy spider webs thrown in for good measure.

Autumn Harvest™ (dark orange) (Currently Not Available)
Spicy blend of cinnamon bark and clove bud on a dry down of musk.

Black Rose™ (black)
The rarest of florals, a fragrant bouquet of black roses with a subtle yet haunting dark undercurrent.

Bonfire™ (dark orange) (Currently Not Available)
A fiery autumn blend with top notes of Incense and Orange, middle notes of Eucalyptus and Vetiver, and bottom notes of Amber and Nutmeg. Complex and invigorating!

Coffin™ (dark purple)
It’s a dead ringer! A bit of old rotting wood with a bit of earth underscored with a masculine lavender to give it some “body”.

Crypt Moss™ (dark green)
Sweet oak moss clinging to an earthy base and a touch of wood spice.

Dracula™ (dark red)
Like a fine wine he only gets better with age. Add a touch of aged merlot with some Turkish spices sweetened with masculine musk. It’s a sexy scent with a bite to it!

Erotica™ (dark red)
A sexy cherry, patchouli, floral and sandalwood blend.

Falling Leaves™ (dark orange)
Crisp forest leaves drifting down on a cool winter night. A scent that compliments the season of Autumn. Woody, earthy, and crisp.

Graveyard™ (black)
An old forlorn, crumbling cemetery with strong tones of wet earth blended with a hint of Frankincense and a touch of myrrh.

Haunted House™ (black)
A spellbinding blend of haunting forest woods, spooky spices and the witch’s little dark secret. A dark sensual fragrance with a musky quality.

Holy Water™ (bone white)
A fresh, light blend of heavenly air, like a crisp storm before the rain. Add some faith and this potion can ward off those blood thirsty vampiric predators. (This scent was previously sold under the name Silver Bullet™)

Ice Queen™ (bone white)
This scent is cool, crisp, light, and aloof with a sweetly tart grapefruit which is lightly blended with crushed ginger, figs, and a touch of orchid blooms to soften and round out the scent.

Nosferatu™ (black)
Deep, mysterious, and masculine – packed with Arabian Spices, Turkish oils, and Indian resins. This is a dark spicy scent reminiscent of the 1930′s Nosferatu.

Lilith™ (dark red)
Very feminine and sexy. A blend of succulent raspberries and a deep natural patchouli.

I was pretty pleased with the majority of these scents. As you can see from her descriptions, it’s very hard to decide on a scent, just on that. So that is why I chose to order so many wax tarts, so I can get a good feel for what she offers. I can say that there are many scents from my haul that I am ordering more of. I knew before ordering that there were going to be some scents that I was already going to like, such as Dracula and then there were scents that I tried just for the hell out it, Lilith being one of them, that I ended up really liking. So you can never judge a scent by its description. So I’m glad I took a chance and tried some that I never would have.

Dark Candles: Light For People Who Prefer The Dark

I think I am in love with a website. Dark Candles is a Dallas based business that creates homemade candles with some of the most awesome sounding fragrances. Not only does Dark Candles have handmade candles, they also have simmering oils (one of my fave things!) fragrance satchels,  and best of all BATH & BODY STUFF!!!! They carry an entire line of body care, including scrubs, body creams, body mists and body oil. They also offer pure vegetable shea butter as well, in both scented and unscented choices. All of the bath and body care is made by hand and is made to order, so you know your getting something of quality!

Their prices are also insanely good – no single item in this store is more than $25, and that is being generous. Most of the body care ranges from $2 for the lipbalm to $12 for the huge sized body wash. The candles themselves clock in at around $16 for the large pillars and $2 for a single votive candle. Dark Candles also offers different packages in where you can order many items for a discounted price, and the most expensive collection that is offered is that of all 24 votive candles for $32.

So the next time you feel the urge to try something new, head on over to Dark Candles and check out the amazing selection there!