(Part 2) Best products from r/Indiemakeupandmore

First time ordering indie eyeshadows aaaand first time sharing swatches of eyeshadows, so please LMK if there are any tricks for doing this better next time. (Like, how to photograph your arm 101 haha.) I went a little crazy at the anniversary sale because there were so many shades I wanted to try! I also picked up a lip gloss in The Blood of My Enemies, but forgot to swatch it, oops. All eyeshadows were swatched over Elizabeth Mott's Thank Me Later. Will copy out reviews here in case Imgur doesn't work for some reason/ease of searching:

• (1) Gears & Levers is a matte brown with a reddish-mauve undertone and a dusty finish. Free sample and the most 'normal' color of the lot -- I have a version of this in a commercial palette.
  
• (2) My Mind Is Telling Me No looks like a yellowy bronze, but depending on the light it can go either VERY brassy (the yellow coming to the forefront) or copper (a more orange-brown) or, in the absence of light, even a mauve (like, purple-brown) -- it's hard to pin down. This was also a free sample.
  
• (3) Still Not A Planet is a fleshy-pink-bronze with a twinkle of blue shimmer which keeps it feeling light. One of my favorites from this haul.
  
• (4) The Largest Moon of Still Not A Planet is like you tossed 100x more turqouise shimmer into (3), which makes it look like a holographic green glaze from some angles and a shimmery taupe from other angles.
  
• (5) A Regular Bears' Meeting is a slightly chocolatier brown base than Gears & Levers, with a golden-orange glitter.
  
• (6) Hodor I bought because everyone fucking loves it. It's a neutral taupe with a sheen -- the website calls it a matte, but I disagree, it has an almost frosted look.
  
• (7) Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist is a golden copper. It photographs as a very yellow gold, but it looks much richer in person because there's this warm copper glitter that obscures the yellowness of the underlayer. To the eye, it looks more like I Tried photographs. I have no idea how I'm going to use it, but I love it.
  
• (8) I Tried photographs as a copper but looks quite a bit pinker in person -- the rose-gold that the website describes is spot-on. Another great color.
  
• (9) Doge is a baby pink glitter bomb. I imagine this will be a very useful color.
  
• (10) Good Luck Charm is very similar to I Tried, but it's a touch browner on the base, and the sheen leans more towards a dull-yellow than the rose-pink of I Tried. It's also a touch (but only a touch) more matte.
  
• (11) Champagne-Fueled Dance Off is so light it's hard to photograph -- it's a pink-crystal glitter. It's like Doge if Doge gave up any pretenses of having a base color and just exploded into bubbly effervescence. In short, it's exactly what the name suggests. It will probably also make a lovely highlighter.
  
• (12) Makkachin is a smoky, medium taupe. It's a very usable, neutral color, but apart from the sparkles that give it something extra, I probably already own something similar.
  
• (13) Stairway to Seven was a free gift for Shiro's seventh anniversary. Website says bronze-gold and I am inclined to agree. Definitely a yellow tone, unfortunately not a color I'm likely to wear.
  
• (14) Lingered In Twilight was an impulse buy but it's freaking gorgeous. Forest green with a slight blue holo shift. Idk if I'm ever gonna wear it, but I'm definitely going to admire it.
  
• (15) The Stars Are Veiled is a deep, royal blue with glitter. Name is spot-on: it looks like a starfield.
  
• (16) Burdened With Glorious Purpose was another impulse buy. It's an olive green with a gold sheen. Pretty much spot-on for Loki. Also spot-on for your favorite neighborhood crocodile.
  
• (17) The End Is Nye looks like a purple-taupe in the jar, but for some reason it is definitely not that when you put it on? Any sufficiently advanced science, I suppose. From some angles, it looks exactly like Makkachin, but from others, it looks more like a darker version of Still Not A Planet. Very weird color, but I like it.
  
• (18) I Never Joke Orchid was another free add-on for the color of the month/thanks for spending too much on eyeshadow haha. It's purple. I don't really wear purple so I don't have much to say.
  
  I love sparkly golds and pinks and neutrals and browns, and was especially curious about the difference between some of these -- and had a hard time telling from other swatches which ones would work best on me, so hopefully this post helps others trying to narrow down similar options. Trying to decide between I Tried, Doge, Good Luck Charm, for example -- I mean, I did, in fact, Try (tm) but clearly I failed at narrowing it down.
  
  Overall, I would say my favorites are probably Still Not A Planet, Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist, I Tried, Doge, Champagne-Fueled Dance Off, and Lingered In Twilight. I'll probably pass on Stairway to Seven, The Largest Moon of Still Not A Planet, I Never Joke Orchid, and maybe Good Luck Charm to friends, but overall, very happy with this purchase. :))

Omg I love this post so much!!! Thank you for sharing! And I can so relate to huffing perfumes at work or whenever I’m feeling anxious (despite the possibility of looking like a weirdo lol). I just bought this book on aromatherapy, Fragrant Mind: Aromatherapy for Personality, Mind, Mood and Emotion, and I’m so excited to get it. Of course, now I have to frantically add my own list before I get ready for work! :D

My favorites for anxiety, a bad mood, depression, etc:

• Haus of Gloi Lavender Chamomile Milk (doubles as a sleep perfume)
  
  
• Possets Silver Pumpkin (it’s very strong, though, so I don’t wear it to work or around people who might have perfume sensitivities)
  
  
• Possets Ghost Fart “Ethereal, very unusual, and about as easy to explain as spiritual flatulence. Actually, it's real nice stuff and you really should try it, but don't try to explain it."
  
  
• Possets Silver Lavender (doubles as a sleep perfume) “An instant classic, the unbelievable wonder of a vanilla like lavender such as this beauty I have found, paired up with the Silver accord we all love, with a drop or two of sandalwood to mellow it all out and you have a perfection of fragrance fit for any occasion from seduction to a family dinner to a tax audit to a declaration of true love. Yes, this is one of the few really 100% versatile fragrances out there. Always correct, always beautiful, can be icy and can be hot. I think the secret ingredient is you, the perfume just conforms to what you want to be.”
  
  
• Possets Silver Vanilla “What the world has been awaiting, The famous and fabulous Possets' "silver" accord now combines with some very special vanillas (plural). One sort of vanilla is not enough, this is a combination of: plush, dry, sweet, and resinous vanillas of the most orgasmic sorts. Yes, yes yes. What more can I say? Ineffable.”
  
  
• Traveling Vardo Seraphim “This is a darkly angelic blend of soft white florals scattered over a bed of black vanilla and Egyptian musk. Vanilla with a bite!”
  
  
• The Little Book Eater Fountain of Youth “Made with the scents of water lotus, rain mist, cyclamen, cucumber, and sandalwood. Watery, fresh, and a bit earthy and ancient. Mysterious and uplifting at the same time.”
  
  
• Darling Clandestine Aragon “Bright, crisp lavender deepened with sea salt and wine, a bit of leather and a touch of chocolate and caramel. Divinely fresh, rich but never cloying.”
  
  
• The Alpine Glow Cranes in the Sky “Fresh lavender and vanilla.”
  
  
• Kuumba Made Water Goddess “A complex blend of clean, smooth water notes drifting into the sweetness of sandalwood with musk undertones. Inspires sensuality and quiet confidence.”
  
  
• Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess “Our top selling fragrance! Egyptian Goddess, combines soft florals, light powder, and musk to create a uniquely seductive perfume.”
  
  
• Darling Clandestine What Mandy Makes “Mandy requested a scent that evokes “loneliness.” Very smoky. Ozoney. Faintest hint of “Oriental” musk. Topnote of cucumber, though there’s no commercial “cucumber” fragrance ingredient. Smoky drydown, sweet musky finish.”

You bet!

This shop here makes this Filipino dessert from rice flour and coconut milk called bibingka and they're delicious. Fast shipping and generous with samples as well.

Not on Etsy, but I'm a huge fan of this place for GF breads. They're very interesting; you buy basically the mix and all the things you need, including the bag to bake your bread in, in the mix along with instructions. The directions are so exact (like down to the exact number of times to stir the mix lol) that they're pretty much impossible to fuck up. And the fresh baked gluten free bread they have is really, really good. (And soy free and vegan!)

The bread place I linked in my most is also vegan I believe and soy free and is mostly famous for their brownies, which I didn't believe could possibly be any good without milk or butter but I'm thinking of going back and giving them a try.

One of my most reliable GF bread places is this vendor here who makes an utterly fantastic sourdough. See, sourdough is my favourite, along with my dad's favourite, or was before he found out he was NCGS. My GF has coeliac and absolutely swears by this place.

If your stepmom bakes at all, I highly recommend this book, especially the biscuit recipe. (Although use butter and not coconut oil, eww.) It's filled with very easy gluten free recipes that even a complete newbie could do well.

I think I might have stepped out of the indie realm for a second there, sorry about that, but I know the struggle of finding good GF substitutes for your GF loved ones. If I find any other good etsy places, I will let you know.

I feel like I asked this before my grand disappearance from imam but - how are we not friends?! Oh my gosh everything about your current book sounds AMAZING.

I've put out scents here and there that are based on my fanfic writing (Darling, in particular) but I really really want to have a book I'm proud of enough to do a full collection for. Which...might be a while off, I haven't felt particularly inspired in my original writings lately, thanks brain. But I have a collection in the pipeline based on a fic I've got that happens to be my most popular, scents play a huge part in it and readers kept saying they'd love to actually smell these things and I was like WELL BOY DO I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU!

My deck has gold!!! It's pretty awesome. Wait lemme see if I can find it on the interbutts...

Ta da!

This year I made an amazon wishlist, and the nice thing about it is you can add items from any website to it (there's a google chrome extension but you can do it from your amazon wishlist, as well.) Some things that I added:

• Gift cards to Etsy and places I like to buy clothes from
  
• A new pair of cheapo earbuds for my purse
  
• These nice headphones
  
• A new ambidexterious gaming mouse (I game right handed but prefer to do everything else on the computer left handed and I don't want multiple mice)
  
• Crafty things (wool, painting supplies, watercolour paper)
  
• Food/candy items for stocking stuffer ideas
  
• A 64gb usb 3.0 drive
  
• A new ipod charging cable
  
• Some stuff from Sephora
  
• A few cool adult colouring books like this
  
• Some art related books (painting, hand lettering) that look interesting but I would never think to buy for myself (my family is big into books)
  
• Sheets, a mattress topper, and a mattress pad
  
• Cards Against Humanity
  
• A link to my steam wishlist
  
  
  
  I basically just took a few hours one evening and surfed the web and added things that looked cool, then revised it the next day and removed anything I didn't actually want. A lot of it is stuff I probably wouldn't buy for myself but I'd enjoy having. I tried to add a variety of stuff in the price range department and I thought listing out gift cards to specific places for clothes/etsy stuff was a better idea than them picking it out because that's usually hard.
  
  
  For etsy itself, I have a few different lists - things I'm going to buy, things I'll probably buy, and things that are maybes. If certain people (my mom, my sister) wanted to see it and pick something out from it I'd let them and that's part of the reason I've organized it that way (and so I know what I like from which stores without having to search through the whole store)

My cat did this when he was a baby too. I put him in the bathroom at night after the first few days. He cried for a bit, but was fine and all happy in the clothes basket when I went in to shower in the morning . :)

Cats aren't supposed to like citrus, but nothing has really turned him away from me. Just be careful with Tea Tree oil, it is very toxic to cats! Enjoy your new baby(pictures please :3)! At that age, mine was jumping on me because he wanted to play and I toss and turn under the covers, which makes it like a game to get whats under the covers. My SO sleeps like a rock with the covers pulled up over him. What also might help is getting a toy and playing with him until he is SUPER tired. http://www.amazon.com/GoCat-Apart-Feather-Assorted-Colors/dp/B000F9JJJE this is the ONLY toy that our cats will freak out over(some stores sell it too!). Our fatty will not play unless it's this, he really likes the mouse attachment and will chase it up our hallways. I have never seen my cat jump so high! Wear him out until he won't get up again before bed, give him some food, then he should go to be for a bit and give you some time to sleep. Jackson Galaxy's show is interesting(he does the play/food/sleep thing and it's the only thing that stops our cats from crying at our door at night).

Sorry if this is all unsolicited XD I am a crazy cat lady and I went through some hell with mine for a bit. He is my best little friend through and I wouldn't trade him for the world. :)

Theres so many good books!!

For sci-fi I like to recommend the Foundation series by Asimov - classics! I read it from the prelude to the Foundation of Earth, some prefer to just read the three original Foundation novels.

Regarding literary HGs:

• Jonathan Safran Foers Extremely loud and incredibly close is a great, great read.
  
  
• Haruki Murakami has written several novels which I would describe as "surrealistic". My favorite of his so far is After dark, but I think Kafka on the Shore showcases more of the Murakaminess.
  
  
• If you like to, or want to start, plating thing I recommend the book Plants from Pits by Holly Farrel :D Very clear instructions and advise for how to plant things like avocado, mangoes or litchi!
  
  
• My most used and precious HG is however a recipe book. If anyone is ever interested in baking traditional and true swedish pastries I would highly recommend Swedish cakes and cookies. Might be hard to find in libraries maybe? The swedish version is "Sju sorters kakor" and a real classic when it comes to baking in swedish homes.
  
  

I realized that I don't use my perfumes as often as I want because of the minor hassle of using it from the bottle vs I regularly use my 10 mL rollerballs because they're easier to use and toss in my bag every morning. So I decided to get empty rollerballs and decant all of them.

I used these rollerballs after searching forever and they arrived perfectly, none of them leaked when I tested them by holding it upside down, and they dispensed the oils just fine. I also have these on the way for the rest of my full sizes. I'm planning to compare them to see which one is better. I think these are prettier though.

It was relatively easy to decant all of them. I had more bottles than pipettes so I free hand poured like half of them without funnels and that worked just fine because I have steady hands. I allocated the pipettes first to the ones that had resins at the bottom (mostly ones with chocolate) that don't mix and my favorite ones and I freehanded the others.

For the labels, I don't own a hair dryer, so I used the hot surface of my wax warmer and quickly rolled each bottle on it to warm it up to loosen the adhesive and they came off really easily.

I'm really happy with my results and I'm planning on throwing one in my bag tomorrow to see how it holds up.

Oh and does anyone have any ideas for the empty bottles? I labeled all of them as I decanted them to keep track. I was thinking about giving them away as sniffies (or whatever they're called), just pay the shipping. I would love to know if there's any interest in this. If so, I can put it up on the next sunday swap.

This is not indie, but I have the same issues with lotions/body butters and I found this lotion made by 80 Acres and fell in love! The scent is light and made with essential oils so it's not overwhelming - it does smell good, but does not linger. The lotion itself is light and sinks in super fast while being super moisturizing. My hands tend to get really dried out in the winter and this has worked wonders. It is $11 for a tube, but I bought mine last winter, use it constantly (and sometimes on my legs - amaaazing after shaving!) and I still have a little bit left. I have tried a ton of indie lotions/butters searching for the perfect one. None of the indie brands I've tried beat this one (as lovely as they are!). Hopefully my non-indie recommendation isn't out of line!

I have 2 indie eye primers (not counting sticky bases), both of which I both love: Femme Fatale's Shadow Magic & Eccentric Cosmetics' High Intensity Eyeshadow Primer (lust, which imparts very slight warm tone to eyeshadow).

Both are great: they lengthen wear-time of shadows, bring out intensity of color & duochromes without sacrificing blendability.

Generally speaking, I find using EC's primer to be easier because it's creamier and it's hard to over-apply. Plus adding a slight warm undertone to shadows is a bonus, since it helps me pull of the more cooler toned colors (they do have a non-colored variant).

FFC's primer can occassionaly create a pulling motion (less blendability) in your eyes if you use too much. However, I can honestly say that I think FFC works best with their own eyeshadows, which is probably my most used indie eyeshadow brand (they do make awesome duochromes).

They are probably tied in my no. 1 spot of primers. I also use UDPP & Too Faced Shadow Insurance (Western), as well as Etude House Proof 10 (if you're into AB, close dupe of UDPP). But after using indie brands, I will probably not restock on those anymore once I finish my current ones.

As for lip scrubs, not indie (it's AB)-- Aritaum Ginger Sugar Lip Scrub.

Hope that helped a little bit. :)

Ok. Now that I've looked up some of my links I remember my thought process last year. You can buy roller ball inserts that fit some bottles but apparently it's hit and miss, see here. Most of the ones I found were metal and those are recommended for essential oils not perfume oils, the viscosity is too thick for metal balls in most perfume oils. Or at least this is what my brain is remembering from a year or two ago when I researched it. I remember settling on glass rollerballs. Plus most of the metal rollerball inserts I found didn't have fantastic reviews, it mentioned quite a few of them with the balls falling out over time. I ended up making a decision to just buy the whole bottle/rollerball cap as a single piece. I bought some 2ml ones on Amazon that I'm happy with. I travel quite a bit so I decant into the little bottles and just keep the original bottles in my collection (or sell half bottles). They take up less space and I don't have to stress if something gets lost/broken or leaks. There's lots of options on Amazon to buy them.

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I also bought some full size bottles on this site. With buying the whole bottle/cap together I was less worried about the issues people encountered with the inserts. My original intention was to decant all my perfumes into these bottles and create my own labels. This way everything is uniform and I'm not dealing with different size bottles for my storage. I personally don't really care about having things in their original bottles but I know many people love the labels/bottles so that may not work for you. I ended up buying and using the smaller bottles but I may do a project at some point to use these for the perfumes I haven't decanted into smaller bottles.

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This site has some options as well for the inserts.

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Sorry I didn't really have a 'here's the perfect thing' solution for you!

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The ones I haven't tested yet get put into a pretty little jewelry box on my dresser because I like to pick samples to test at random, so I don't really want them to be sorted. The jewelry box has a few dividers so I sort sprays from oils, etc, but that's about it. After testing they move to my destash box or my mini chest of drawers.

Re: the mini chest of drawers, I have something kinda like this (I bought mine on clearance at Target forever ago but this is close) and I devote each drawer to a different company. I use one drawer for "miscellaneous" as well, for companies I don't really buy from but I may have gotten a sample I like in a swap or whatever.

(This method might not work for everyone; I vastly prefer full sizes so I don't have or keep that many decants/samples, relatively speaking. Also, this won't work if you really want to see your samples. It took me a while to settle on, though, and I'm pretty happy with it, so I thought I'd share in case it'd be helpful for anyone.)

Uuugghhhh still one more week of my sucky job. At least now I'm not working too hard to "appear" busy when I'm not. Today is my last late night (I've been working Mondays from 9am to around 8/9pm and it sucks)!

I got my fiance's Nvidia tablet in the mail yesterday. I booted it up and started a new account because they had the Lego Jurassic World game for over half off until today and he's not getting it until next week. Only to discover you basically need the controller to play anything that's not a tablet game. So I ordered the stupid controller and he better love it because geez this is expensive. Had I known this, I would have ordered the tablet and controller together, but it only would have saved me $1. It was my understanding that it had on screen controls, too, but I couldn't find any. Oh well.

I went grocery shopping yesterday. This seems like not a big deal except it has been literal MONTHS since I've properly grocery shopped. We've been scrounging like mole people. I didn't really have the money for it but I'm so tired of not having actual food. But now we do! At least for the time being. And now, with my new seasonal job, my hours are much better. I also feel like I've just been really down the whole 5 months I've been there. I don't feel like doing anything or going anywhere or cooking or anything. Ugh I can't wait until this week is over. At the same time I'll miss working with my fiancé, future brother in law, and their best friend (yes, we all work there lol). And having a desk. But that's it.

Oh, I woke up Saturday morning with an eye thing? It's not pink eye because it doesn't itch and it's not red or anything. It's just swollen/puffy on the lower/outer lid and there's a definite dot of pain. Maybe a stye? It still looks the same to me this morning, but it needs to fuck off because I don't have insurance and idk what I'll do if it doesn't go down.

I bought this one and this one for the exact same reasons (and because a lot of scents go weird on me). I find that the longevity and throw are much better with the lockets, however, any of potentially nice ways the scent plays on the skin is lost. Which could be good for a scent you like that goes weird on your skin. I tried BPAL - Covfefe in one of these and the scent lasted for DAYS.

I previously bought some random metal one and find that the stainless ones hold up better. Silver would probably be fine, but I'd be wary of anything plated. It seemed like a combo of my skin and the perfume ate the finish off this plated one I bought because it was cute and I am a sucker. I think it's a toss up whether the felt or the stone are a better vessel for the perfume, though.

In regard to getting several beads, YES. I can't imagine getting the perfume out of the nooks and crannies well enough that you won't have some pollution of the next perfume. I keep the felts/stones in a tiny labeled ziplock bag between wearings so I don't OD on scents in my room. Seems to do the trick.

I use it for milder flareups of eczema and it works well enough. For the strong flareups though I still need to get my prescription creams.

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This is what I used:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00987FWHW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Available for purchase on Amazon! BUY IT AND READ IT RIGHT NOW.

It's a great dystopian story revolving around dysfunctional teens.

You can get something like this to help you take off the cap! (this is just a quick link to share what I mean)
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Oil-Opener-Key-Tool/dp/B01ILPX4O4

It's in a plastic bottle with a disk flip top, like a shampoo bottle.

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https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Bottles-BPA-Free-Containers-Shampoo/dp/B01NCKPTLT/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1549318787&sr=8-2&keywords=empty%2Bbottle&th=1

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