#mod teja

Poésie Midwinter Feast Collection 🌊❄️

Poésie is coming to quite impress me as a perfume company, and even if her scents were not invariably unique and complex, I would be won over by the lovely subject matter by which creator Joelle Nealy is inspired.  This collection was inspired by the Vikings and Norse mythology - more than a slight interest of mine, and I couldn’t wait to take a journey through her fragrances.  Unfortunately, I forgot to post this during the period in which it was new and relevant!  Enjoy these slightly-belated Vikings, and my sincere apologies.

A Day & A Night: sweet amber, white amber, natural fossilized amber oil, sensual musk, vanilla, dark spices & resins A darkly golden amber-vanilla.  As much as I love vanilla, I am a bit pickier about the nature of the vanillas I wear, and golden and rich is not the kind I prefer, but for someone else, I am sure this would be heaven in a bottle.

Beloved: sugared plums, sumptuous brown sugar cake dusted with cinnamon sugar, a hint of woodsmoke and labdanum What starts out as a candied plum scent fades into a brown sugar cake with candied fruit accents. I got a bit of smokiness, but never any cinnamon.

Forest Cat: fuzzy paws tinged with earth, night forest, grey fur musk, milky breath I get an impression of snowy earth and chilly forest air (but no pine or ozone, so I’m not sure why that impression is quite so strong) an an accompaniment to a strong cream note.  This scent is pretty and innocent, and I currently have a pair of kittens living in my house who do smell a bit creamy, where I would argue adult cats certainly do not, so this is the smell of the idea of kittens frolicking in the snow.

Idunn’s Apples: golden apples, caramelized hazelnuts, sweet cedarwood, hazy oud, creamy musk If you love sophisticated gourmand, this is something you simply must try. A genuine tart-sweet apple note and a caramel note are quickly enveloped in and grounded by nutty wood and musk notes, giving it a sultry edge.

Mead of Poets: honeyed mead, a historical medley of intoxicating herbs and spices, red musk, the blood of the wise If anyone has ever had mead before: it literally smells like this.  Honeyed as all hell and very strong, with loads of spices (including cinnamon, I believe, as this stung where I applied it, but quickly faded).  

Mischief Maker: black coffee clouded with sweet cream then drizzled with caramel, naked salt-tinged skin Here we had an unfortunate accident of skin chemistry: on me, this scent was ALL sea salt and black coffee - almost scorched black coffee, then mellowed into a bracing black coffee with some caramel. However, on the hat I was wearing shortly after putting it on, it transformed into the fluffiest caramel macchiato scent you ever smelled.  The sweet cream note on my hat and coat collar were, in fact, so strong that when I put them on again after work, I could not tell what it was they smelled like, nor how they had come to smell like it!  I wondered if that pretty, dreamy smell was coming from somewhere else.  Oh, Loki, you have pranked me once again.  Fortunately, I was never one to want to smell like coffee scents anyway.

Northmen: weathered leather, turbulent seawater, woodsmoke, oakwood, birch tar, a blood-stained shield The leather note from Poésie is much stronger on me than BPAL’s leather note is, but soon the leather becomes, like the woodsmoke and birch tar, a supporting note adding texture to the dark blue ocean scent that dominates this blend.  It was a deep blue aquatic note with a few nearly floral characteristics, and I found it very pleasant to wear, if not “me”.

Shield-Maiden: pink rose, peony, sharpened metal, crisp air, deep pine woods and frozen earth I am IN LOVE with Shield-Maiden!  This is the winter floral of my dreams, and I must get a bottle of it soon. The full lush florals of the peony and tender rose balance perfectly against a backdrop of a perfect winter scene.  It really does smell like frozen earth and crisp air, with a faint, almost spicy touch of pine. 

LitttleBits on Etsy is a company devoted to making historical cosmetics and skincare according to original recipes, selecting high-quality natural ingredients (no lead or anything like that, of course) so you can well and truly look like an historical beauty - and Jamie sent me a bunch of their stuff to try for my birthday! I don’t have to say how excited I was.

She sent me two full-size liquid lip and cheek tints, one solid one, a face powder, and three samples including two more tints and a perfume.

The website recommends applying liquid tints with a sponge or a finger.  I tried to use a lip brush, but my results were less pigmented than using my fingertip, so reluctantly, I did just that. I dearly wish these were packaged with a brush or as a rollerball, because application is an enormous inconvenience, especially for someone who does her makeup at 4 am on her bed.  Because the sample vials come with a little probiscis thing, they’re much easier to use.  

I also found that they had an unpleasant red wine or vinegar sort of smell, mostly Elizabeth, and excepting Bloom of Roses, which smells like roses and is in most ways a good dupe for Benetint, but is one of the products that contains carmine, a pigment made from a ground-up beetle, making it neither vegan nor cruelty-free.  All of them lose their fragrance upon application.

It was difficult to get a good picture of how this product performed on my face, but you can tell my cheeks and lips look flushed and pink. On my cheeks I wore Jane Bennet, which showed up as a very pretty, vibrant pink in spite of being easily the lightest and least buildable color in the arm swatch; on my lips, I had a harder time getting Jane to make an appearance, and supplemented her with some Bloom of Roses.

This product takes a moment to dry down, and for a while after stays tacky, almost like a film on the cheek.  Eventually, it becomes as dry and watercolor-pretty as any other liquid stain.  That said, it was difficult to apply this in a way that did not make it patchy, which is more noticeable in person than in the pictures.  I especially struggled to prevent it from collecting on the drier center of my bottom lip, even though I exfoliate my lips daily.  

The solid rouge had the most disappointing color payoff for me, being neither pigmented nor a very flattering color, and the strongest and most lingering scent, one of cocoa butter.  To many people, this would not at all be a challenge, but I don’t personally like scented products unless they smell like flowers.  As a balm, however, this has the most moisturizing performance of anything I’ve ever tried, and would be excellent in the winter.

The Lily & Lilac toilet water had a very faint, green scent that was somewhat lilyish, but doesn’t last much, and I have to press my nose to my wrist to detect it.  However, it is worth noting that it comes in a 4 ounce bottle for ten dollars, and at that size and price, is probably intended to be very liberally splashed on, and not dabbed in a tiny amount like I did.  It is very pretty, and I am curious how it works on clothes and bedsheets, as it is advertised as also being for linens.

The powder is easily my favorite product.  I applied it over RMS Uncover Up and to my surprise it didn’t go on whitish or cakey, but instantly brought my skin to a demi-matte finish.  It’s not drying, doesn’t emphasize lines or anything. It has a bit of a gritty consistency, but it buffs away smoothly.  

However, the packaging is awful.  The lid isn’t particularly secure, and there is no sifter, so i spill some every single time I use it.  It’s a generous amount of product, so that isn’t too much of a waste, but I hate that this is even a problem, and it puts a damper on my otherwise limitless enthusiasm for such a perfect face powder.

Overall thoughts: I am a little too dark complexioned for some of the lighter colors, but the darker ones are excellent - the Liquid Rouge is the kind of deep wine stain I’ve been looking for. I’ve been looking for a natural alternative to Benetint and this is the closest match I’ve come across, though it seems to lack Benetint’s staining power (not a surprise) and doesn’t last through eating, which would not be a problem if it weren’t a pain to apply.  Which leads to the biggest con:

These are great products that are seriously hampered in their effectiveness by their poor packaging.  I’m sure they are inexpensive in part because of that, but I would happily pay at least five dollars more per product to get jars with brushes attached to the lids or rollerballs, or like, a sifter and a screw-on lid for the powders.  Something that needs to be touched up in particular needs to be easier to apply on the go, instead of already hard to apply at home.  

❄️ Winter is possibly my favorite season, and yet how little do I get to enjoy its enchantment and its majesty, now that I live in town and from the snow-covered hills of my childhood - and given that every single winter, my skin turns into an aging library book.  It is very hard to feel like an enchanted winter woodland elf when your skin feels like it shares the texture of the surrounding trees.

The topic of full winter hydration is bigger than lip scrubs, and yet here we are. I have tried three lip scrubs and they are all fairly different formulas and textures, so let’s get into it!

I bought French Girl Lip Polish when it was sold at Credo and I wanted to hit the free shipping minimum; at that point i made my own lip scrub every morning out of almond oil and sugar, and had seen this bottle on a lot of Polyvore sets, so I figured I might as well try a new lip scrub.  This has a loose, but not liquid texture and has little round-feeling granules, so it’s not a harsh scrub.  It’s very minty and decently effective - certainly thicker and more effective than anything i was using myself.  The product size is generous, at 15 dollars for one ounce. But the sugar dissolves fairly quickly, so it isn’t my favorite.

Bite Beauty Agave Sugar Lip Scrub came in a holiday giftset I was anxious to try, with minis of this and two of their Agave balms, which I really like.  This has a vanilla-ish scent I’m not fond of (solely because I don’t like food-scented lip products; I imagine for most people this is a firm plus) and a very liquid texture.  When you’re done scrubbing you’re meant to wet your finger and rub it over the scrub, whereupon it transforms into a milky lather and washes right off.  It’s very strange, but as a scrub, for me merely decent.  I find this one somewhat more drying than reviews on it claim it is, and I don’t feel that it actually does much to remove dead skin from my extremely chapped lips.  This is .26 ounces for 18 dollars.

My most recent addition is Herbivore Botanicals’ Coco Rose Lip Polish.  Like everything I’ve tried from Herbivore, I adore it - and like the rest of their Coco Rose line, it has a very faint rosy-coconut scent that makes me feel like a princess.  This is the hardest to use in the winter because the oils solidify a bit, but this is fully packed with fine sugar granules and exfoliates very well while also leaving behind a halo of moisture, making it the one I reach for most.  I really want to try the accompanying balm.  This one is .17 ounces for 18 dollars, which bites, but I’m not going through it that quickly, and I adore it, so I will live.

Unfortunately, it must be said that when my lips are very chapped and peeling, as they have been lately (in part because I’ve been sick), none of these products fully removes all of my awful mummified skin, even if i follow them up with a damp toothbrush.  But the Herbivore scrub is my favorite; the sugar takes the longest to dissolve, so it exfoliates more effectively, and the blend of oils makes it moisturizing on the lips after the sugar has been dabbed off.  Its smell adds a final beautifying touch to an otherwise already great product.

🏰 The Winter 2017 issue of Faerie Magazine arrived at my doorstep a couple of days ago, but I’ve only just peeked into it today.   The theme was the Mediaeval era, which I adored as I was growing up as a child, but fell out of love with - or out of touch with my love for - somewhere along the way.  

I enjoyed this issue as a whole more than I’ve enjoyed an issue from this magazine in a long time (there’s even an article in it about the mediaeval garden at the Cloisters in NYC!), but felt especially inspired by a short article by Rona Berg about mediaeval beautifying practices, and wanted to talk about the things in my life that put me a bit in touch with that old love for this historical period.

Roses everything In the article, Berg discusses the immense popularity of roses as a healing balm and a fragrance, and it’s certainly true that roses are, in addition to being a love I associate with most anything, an incredibly appropriate mediaeval scent.  In addition to rose-scented perfume, many skincare brands have rose-themed lines.  There are a number of rosewater toners and facial mists, but the Fresh deep hydration rosewater toner, and Rose face mask, are both full of real rose petals, for an extra luxurious, yet rustic feeling.

The Cloisters in NYC If you are ever in NYC and have the opportunity to visit, the Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted solely to the Mediaeval era: they have tombs, glass windows, real castle architecture, the most beautiful garden, and of course, the Unicorn Tapestries, and in the springtime the scent of hyacinths wafts through the hallways as you near the garden.  This is really one of my favorite places in the world to be.

Ornate jewelry I don’t find the “clunky jewelry” trend flattering, but it’s hard to resist the details of a really beautiful piece of jewelry.  I can’t wear rings at work, but I wish I could wear them more often. My two favorite rings, and two of my favorite pieces of jewelry, are a silver-colored rose ring, and a silver-colored ring with a large yellow-orange gemstone - this is one of my favorite color combinations for jewelry, since I prefer silver over gold, and it’s impossible to find warm-colored stones that are set in something silver-colored.

Ornate packaging Rituel de Fille’s little magic-looking bottles of eye soot are for those moments when you want a fantasy version of the mediaeval era, to feel a bit like a witch in a painting.

Mementos from loved ones In keeping with several themes here, beloved friend and fellow mod Jamie sent me a little sachet of rose petals from her very beautiful (and fragrant, at the time - the scent is gone now, but the whole box she sent them in smelled like roses!) rosebush over the summer.  I cherish the gift as well as the memory, and recall it every time I look on the sachet, which I keep on my (crowded) dresser.

Skincare rituals Like the pairing of a rosewater toner and mask, the pairing of a good lip scrub with a thick lip balm is a beauty ritual that makes me indulge in a fantasy of feeling like a princess (instead of a modern day feudal peasant, as capitalism often makes me feel).  I love the brand Herbivore Botanicals and really want to get my hands on their lip conditioner, now that I’ve tried their lip scrub, a tiny little bottle of coconut-rose scented scrubby sugar granules.  (I know that you can make lip scrubs, and I’ve done so in the past, but I’ve found expensive purchased ones are truly better than my own homemade scrubs, so whatever.)  Until I commit to the Herbivore coco rose lip balm, though, I’m still in love with Osmia Organics lip repair with myrrh and honey. Doesn’t really smell like those things, but is so comfortable on the lips. 

Perfume Perfume can put me in mind of all and any things, and the mediaeval era was full of scents. To paraphrase Rona Berg, when she thinks about this period and place in history, smells are one of the first things that the imagination conjures.  For me, roses, herbs, resins, gardens and forests are the primary scents of my fantasy memory.  Some of the perfumes I’ve tried that have instantly put me in mind of the mediaeval era are: Sarawen Elf Princess (rose, lavender, sandalwood, lily and herbs): This truly is like the scent of a mediaeval garden, and one of the only scents with sandalwood in it that my skin can appreciate.  I wore this one to the Cloisters in March, where it was most fitting, so now I have an atmospheric memory with which to associate it! BPAL Elizabeth of Bohemia (the perfect rose oudh): This is an Elizabethan poem, but you will pry this scent from my cold, dead, rose and oudh scented fingers.  This is one of my favorite perfumes of literally all time.  I buy a lot of perfume every year, and have loads of infatuations, but this blend - which applies seamlessly to a mediaeval mindset and feels best in velvets and big rings - is a one true love. BPAL Parlement of Foules (white roses and resins, including frankincense): This Lupercalia (Valentine’s Day) limited edition scent, which has shown up a few years now, is meant to evoke “mediaeval romance and courtly love”, and for me, it very much does.  Wearing this one, I want to be lost in an labyrinthine garden in early springtime, when it has very recently rained.  The past feels very close to the present when I’m wearing it. CutieMonster Upon a Dream (lavender and roses, milk and honey): As sweet and dreamy as the animated film on which it’s based, I enjoy wearing this gentle and unobtrusive scent on days when I want to feel dreamy and uncomplicated. BPAL Bewitched (blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and musk):  Faintly witchy, extremely wearable, evocative of sweet berries and dried herbs and tea - a scent for beautiful peasant maids on the edge of a forest, mediaeval without limiting the archetype of elegance to princesses. BPAL Othello (Arabian musk, two roses, and spices): Another technically-Elizabethan contender, this is a surprising scent for Othello.  This is the sweet charm and warmth that won Desdemona’s heart, not the cold rage that stopped it. Alkemia Midnight Garden (tuberose, honeysuckle, gardenia and lily): As gorgeous and fresh a white floral as this is, I love to wear this one to bed and fantasize about what palace I am falling asleep in.  A versatile evocative blend that does not always involve a mediaeval castle in my mind, but works for it perfectly. BPAL Morgause (night-blooming flowers, violet, purple fruits and mediaeval incense): Sweet incense burning amidst the ancient tomes of a witch’s library, with a delicate window open, outside of which is... you guessed it! A mediaeval garden!  BPAL Bess (rosemary, orange blossom, five roses, grape, lemon peel and mint): And yes, another Elizabethan scent, but that note list. I get all of them on my skin, and the way they balance each other out is just beautiful.  Sweet fruity grape is balanced by mint and lemon on one end, the nearly spicy unmistakeable note of rosemary, and a hint of beautiful flowers. 

Chapter I: Dr. Van Helsing: Hellfire, black leather, dark chocolate, sweet smoke, cold whiskey, wild musk and a charred wooden stake. Surprisingly tame. This scent might belong to an adventurer, but it smells like the comforting scents of the hearth.  Leather never smells very strong on me, and chocolate tends to, but in this one I get a lot of leather and smoke with a subtle, bittersweet chocolate background.   Chapter II: Lucy Westenra: Brugmansia flower, night-blooming Cereus, oud, guaiacwood, honey, fennel, stone This is the scent of thick, dark golden wildflower honey.  The really expensive honey that comes in a glass jar, not the sweeter kind that comes in a plastic bear.  Perhaps the other notes ground this scent and prevent it from being one-dimensional and sickly-sweet, but the only other note I really detect is the distinct cereus.  I’m debating a full bottle of this. If the florals came out a bit more, it would be an easy choice, but as it is, the honey still amps on me.

Chapter III: Mina Harker: Cold jasmine tea, ripe plum, black violets, pale skin musk

If I buy any of them, it will be this one, which is beautiful.  I struggle to find jasmine notes in oil-based brands that do smell like jasmine on me, and while this does not, it has a strong Oriental Floral quality that isn’t overpowering.  It smells like orchid to me.  Neither violet nor plum amp (unusual) and the ‘cold tea’ and pale musks dominate while remaining delicate.  I hope I can find time in between my Yuletide shopping to pick this up.

Chapter IV: Vlad Dracul: Carpathian fir needle, red cedar, black amber, black patchouli, scorched earth, opium, blood musk.

Anyone who wants to smell like a rich, Transylvanian evergreen forest with a witchy undercurrent of herbs and tart berries needs this scent.  I know the berry note i detect is probably a mixture of opium and blood musk, but I can’t shake the association.  This would make a gorgeous room scent during the winter.   

Chapter V: The Weird Sisters: Iris root, carnation, helichrysum, styrax, ruby-red lips, silk gowns, bone-white sandalwood (premium)

‘Silk gowns’ apparently means lots and lots of vanilla. I get a blend of iris and sandalwood underneath it, but it is dominantly vanilla. For a vanilla-loving gothic heroine who wants to walk among the moonbeams and convince people that she might be no more than a passing vision, this would be perfect.  I found it too similar to Poesie’s Marble Kiss (review forthcoming) to be much moved by it, but I do love a good vanilla perfume.

Sixteen92′s fall collection is limited edition and I’m not sure when it comes down.  That said, they tend to rerelease the collection of the previous year, so next year you might have another chance at this one if you don’t get to it now.  Full bottles and sample sets of five all come in at 20 USD, and you can buy samples separately or create your own sample set that includes seasonal collections if you only want to try a couple at a time.

Poésie is a lovely indie parfumerie with a lot of themed collections and a special knack for gourmand scents, although those are not my favorite.  They released a collection (not limited edition, to my knowledge) inspired by Jane Eyre recently; previous collections have included a Twin Peaks set, a few of which I have tried, and one for famous women of history.  They’ve only just come out with a Viking-themed collection for the early winter season, and I am keen to try it soon. But for now, Jane Eyres, while it is still November (to my mind, one of the Jane Eyriest months of them all).

They have free shipping on the website, everything can be tried in a sample set and two different sizes, and they ship very quickly. There is really no way to go wrong with this brand. 

Opening Chapter: a generous cup of steaming Darjeeling tea, a rainy day, a pile of old books all your own This scent sits somewhere between vanilla and mildew. Perhaps the mildew note would not appear on someone else, but unfortunately for me, I couldn’t shake the impression.

Tiny Phantom: innocent pink roses, marshmallow buttercream, pale white musk, antique mahogany Pretty much a dead ringer for Possets’ Isabella, a confection of sophisticated pink roses, silver musk and ripples and ripples of marshmallow.  This is ridiculously sweet on me, but I know for many out there, that’d be a good thing.

Thornfield: burned wood and lingering smoke, new Vanille accord (a sweet, non-foody vanilla), the barest hint of pumpkin pie spices I could not stand this one. It was the only one I had a truly negative reaction to, as something between the spices and the burned scent brought turkey to my mind and stayed there.

Bewitched: the ingredients for a love spell -  yellow apple, clove, apricot, black pepper, vetiver, anise, cauldron smoke Clove-heavy at first, then it dies down into a witchy golden liquid in a potion bottle, veiled in smoke.  The fruit notes are probably what make it seem so golden and light, but it isn’t a fruity scent on me.

Sir: a masterful blend of fine cognac and tobacco, leather riding boots and a worn leather saddle, hay from the stables, warm skin An autumn-appropriate hay scent with a touch of spice, probably how the leather reads to me.  This is certainly a touch ‘masculine’, but I really enjoyed it; I love hay notes.

Strange Unearthly Thing: moss and ivy entwined, an overturned log studded with tiny mushrooms, one ripe peach, a circle of fairy flowers, white amber In the bottle, this smells like enchanted rainwater, but on my skin, sadly it becomes a men’s body wash sort of aquatic.  I don’t dislike aquatics, and i love moss, but I hate soap.  I really wanted a moss-and-peach fairy scent, but this wasn’t the one.

Marble Kiss: gorse blossom, pink marshmallow, sweet sandalwood incense, a wedding coronet of orange blossom, white iris, and rose de mai This smelled powdery in the bottle, and I wasn’t at all expecting to like it - gorse is supposed to smell like coconut, sandalwood and powdery notes like iris often amp on me, and marshmallow notes, while pretty, can easily overpower a scent.  In fact, this was my favorite of the collection, and I immediately planned on buying a bottle (and in fact, I did).   Marble Kiss goes on full coconut-gorse and florals, with the powdery iris and sweet orange blossom managing to keep the sandalwood from amping, and the coconut keeping the iris and orange blossom from being cloying and baby powder-ish.  But a bit into the weartime, the roses start to appear and the whole scent diffuses so that none of the notes are easy to pick out, and the beautiful rose and orange blossom floral notes come to the fore.

No Bird: blossoming heather, windswept moors, dried leaves eddied by a zephyr This truly smells like being outside in the autumn wind; there’s a bit of a stone note amongst that heather and leaves scent that recalls walking outside.  It’s unusual and I’ve never smelled anything like it.  I ended up buying a bottle of this.

Myself Invisible: stacked books, spilled ink, black tea, shy violets hiding deep in the forest A musky and dark violet and a bit of book-and-ink notes, reminding me a tad of BPAL’s The Manuscript from their Crimson Peak collection.  This was an incense-y sort of violet, and never once reminded me of candy.

Attempting to be Snow White - a girl who spent all of her puberty getting her beauty sleep - on almost no sleep at all!  Yeah, a really good idea.

My face is so puffy and swollen today.  But my makeup has been really lovely lately! I am trying a number of new products out since I discovered you can get samples of so many lovely things from The Detox Market (4 good-sized samples for 10 dollars with shipping in the US).  I’ve probably put down like, 50 dollars on samples in the last two weeks.  There were a lot of green beauty products I wanted to try that I couldn’t swatch even if I could walk into a Sephora, and this was a brilliant alternative.  I’ve mostly been trying face and skincare products, but I hope to go back for more color cosmetics eventually.  They offer samples from so many good brands I already love or want to try: Rituel de Fille, Ilia, RMS, Vapour, Ecobrow, w3ll people, Indie Lee, Briogeo, Rahua, and Kjaer Weis all spring immediately to mind.  Being able to test colors and formulas when you have an unusual skin color or sensitive skin is such a big deal.  So I might have gone overboard in my excitement to get so many multi-use samples of things I can’t even afford to get right now, but who can blame me?

Face:  Vapour Stratus Instant Skin Perfector in the shade 902, used as primer Ilia Vivid Foundation in Santorini, applied with the Sephora Pro Collection Flawless Airbrush #56 w3ll people Bio-Correct Multi-Action concealer in the shade Light (undereyes only) w3ll people Realist face powder The Body Shop lip & cheek stain in Red Pomegranate Vapour Stratus Soft Focus Instant Skin Perfector in the shade 902, used as highlighter

Eyes:  Ecobrow in ‘Liz’ on my brows RMS beauty Contour Bronze as a crease shade RMS beauty eye polish in Myth on my lid DHC pro perfect double protection mascara Bite beauty multistick in Anise applied to the inner corner of my eyelid NARS eye pencil in Vogue Rose on the lower lashline primed/set with the same w3ll people realist powder