Self-Imposed Hiatus

Alright, y'all, it's reached that point: I have to go into work hibernation. I have mind-boggling amounts of work to do in a depressingly short period of time, and I can no longer use online shopping as procrastination, because the sales are over, I need find no more Christmas presents, and Mint is very angry at me. I'm sure I'll be tempted to work on posts and not abandon you entirely, but I'm going to try to stay away––but don't think I don't love you! I do. And I will hopefully get all caught up with posting and being a more enthusiastic human being once this hellish term is over. Rumor has it there will be a giveaway to celebrate my survival, assuming I make it through, so don't go too far ;)

But, before I fall into the abyss, does anyone else think that "apothecary" ([ə'pɑθɪˌkɛ˞ɹi]) should be pronounced [ˌæpəˈθɛkɚɹi]? Doesn't that sound more awesome?

That's all. I MISS YOU ALREADY.

Gourmand Perfumes

Ermahgerd, a Fragrance Friday! A bit short, but hey! Now excuse me while I go work on coding particle verbs in a German toddler's speech (it's more fun than it sounds).

I used to think I didn't like gourmand scents. With Angel being the poster child, can you really blame me? (Blech.) But then I fell down the perfume rabbit hole, and came to discover that I can enjoy scents in families I had formerly written off. Case in point: All the perfumes in this post. I tend to dislike really sweet scents, so most of these are on the spicier end of things, though there's a fair amount of vanilla to be had, too.

Arquiste Anima Dulcis (Gourmand: cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, chili): This is the perfume that set off my quest for oriental gourmands. It's the first gourmand I've encountered that I really, truly, love, and it's made me realize I should find others! This quest is off to a good start (see Volutes and 5 O'Clock au Gingembre, below). It smells like chocolate and spices and incense, foreign and familiar at the same time. I think everyone should smell it. Yes, you too, gourmand-hater. It might change your mind!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are many things I am thankful for this year. I am thankful for my family, as always, for being wonderful, loving, supportive people. I am thankful for my friends, both near and far, for putting up with my numerous shortcomings, for making me laugh and think and play, even when they're 3000 miles away. I'm thankful for the internet and cell phones for making it possible to stay connected with those I love and miss, and for letting me create new connections, for frabbits and giggles. I'm thankful for professors who challenge me and understand when I come up short, for fellow grad students who suffer along with me, for shared library systems that allow me to find the books I need for free, for students who make me laugh and challenge me to be a better teacher, for online freely available corpora, for being at a university that embraces the weird and pays for my education. I'm thankful for disposable income, due for the most part to the generosity of my family, and the luxury of being able to buy myself pretty things that comes with that. I'm thankful for perfume and makeup for cheering me up when I'm blue, for other blogs for inspiring me, for Calvin and Hobbes for always, always being appropriate. And, of course, for all of you, for reading and commenting and supporting. I am so grateful to have you all in my corner.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On Sexual Assault

Majorly personal not-at-all beauty-related information behind the cut, so if you're here for lippies and blush, I recommend reading old posts. Also, major trigger warning for sexual assault/rape, in case that wasn't clear. It's really long, and kind of sad, and please don't feel like you have to read it. (I'm also a little scared about posting this, since the internet is not always an understanding place, but it's risk nasty comments or say nothing at all, so I'm sharing it anyways.) This was scheduled to post tomorrow night, but after reading this post on the Swarthmore weekly newspaper site just now, I've decided to move it up.

NYX HD Concealer Wand in Fair 02 Review and Swatches

Alright, I've had this for a couple months now and I should really review it, but it's concealer and therefore boring, so I'm going to take the lazy girl's route and not bother with structure. Here's the rubric, with comments as needed (ended up being rather plentiful, surprise surprise).

Haulage

20% off sales are a terrible, wonderful thing. In spite of my ongoing malaise, or perhaps because of it, I've taken advantage of the Sephora and Beauty.com sales the past week. I'm really still not up to writing actual posts, or taking pictures, or being, y'know, a decent blogger, so instead, here are some pictures of the things I've ordered (which you can expect to see posts on at some point in the future). I also ordered several Christmas presents, but those aren't shown below, because some of them are for people who read the blog :)

Make Up For Ever Aqua Brow
in 25 Ash

Tarina Tarantino Conditioning Lip
Sheen in Queen Alice

Skincare Saturday: Eve Lom

Hi, guys! Here's a post I wrote awhile ago but never got around to posting. Hope you like! Now I must get back to my statsyntaxing (I love concatenations, hehe).

Back in September, I went to Barneys with L on a perfume sniffing mission. We accomplished that, I found my perfect lip gloss, and got a bunch of skincare samples from Eve Lom. I've already mentioned a couple of them on here, but I figured I should do a full "review" of them in one place.

image via Barneys

Eve Lom is a London-based skincare company best known for their cleanser, which is oil-based and is meant to be used with a muslin cloth. They also claim that it works as a makeup remover, cleanser, and toner in one. Now, I love oil cleansers, and am well familiar with how they work. Eve Lom's is thicker than true cleansing oils, more of a paste, but it becomes more liquidy as you rub it between your hands. They recommend applying a penny-sized dollop to your dry face, making sure to massage thoroughly and work the product in to break down your makeup, including heavy eye makeup. Then, you get the muslin cloth wet with hot water and lay it over your face, letting it sit for a few seconds before wiping away and repeating the process. I don't know if the muslin cloth that came with my sample was full size or not, but I sincerely hope it is not, because it's so weirdly shaped and sized that I find it to be somewhat of a hindrance in the actual face-washing process. It's much longer than it is wide, to the point where it's simultaneously too long and too narrow (looking at the Eve Lom website, though, it seems likely that this is one of the "travel size" cloths, so the full size ones are hopefully better). I tended to lay it over my face diagonally, since that covered the most real estate, but it was still less than ideal. I did think it was really cool how any makeup that got on the cloth just washed right off, like magic! But I didn't actually find it to be a terribly effective cleanser. Yes, it managed to get my face makeup off without issue (unless you consider the several minute process to be an issue, which I most certainly do when I'm tired and just want that shit gone), but it was much less successful with eye makeup, even the relatively light eye makeup I tend to wear. It never fully removed my non-waterproof mascara, so I can only imagine how less than stellar it would be at removing something waterproof! So, all in all, I found it to be much more trouble than it was worth, and gladly returned to my usual Shiseido oil-Philosophy Purity combo, which has never let me down. And which, together, are cheaper than the smaller size of Eve Lom, and last longer (I get 6 months from that combo, and the Eve Lom spokespersonn said the travel size tub would last about 2.5). If, however, you're the type who really loves thorough face cleansing pampering and don't wear much eye makeup and are fine with putting off bedtime to repeatedly wipe at your face with a weirdly shaped cloth, you may find Eve Lom's cleanser to be just the ticket! (Okay, that's not fair, because lots of people really love it. Google and go read their reviews, because I obviously am not one of them.) $50 for 1.7 oz, $80 for 3.4, $135 for 6.75, available from Barneys and Space NK (all purchasing information is valid for the US)

Blergh

This post is an acknowledgment of, and apology for, my relative absence of late. Between my classes, research, teaching, and this damned depression (though I will say that last night cheered me up considerably!), I haven't had much time nor motivation to blog, and for that, I apologize. I'm no less dedicated to my reading of blogs and my enjoyment of makeup and perfume has yet to wane, but I haven't felt up to doing much in the way of production (the irony of posting this after my most recent post/celebration of reaching 500, it kills!). I don't plan to disappear entirely, but I will be posting less often. There are many things I would love to chat with y'all about, but most will have to wait until a less stressful time. The weekly features will likely be on hiatus, as they've been weighing on my mind in an unpleasant manner (strange how the consistent routine I prefer when I'm happy feels stifling when I'm sad, eh?), and I'm putting the monthly empties post on hold until school gets out––it'll be a doozy, though!

I'm trying to find my balance again, but I promise, I will be back. And you can probably expect to hear from me at least once a week until then. I feel really bad about neglecting the blog and y'all, but I just have to hope you'll hang around until things get back under control at Casa Amy! 

500

HOLY SHIT, GUYS, THIS IS MY 500TH POST.

I'm kind of in shock. That's just crazy! I tend to get all introspective and rambly at times like these (or, like, all the time), but since I just did a post like that, I'll try to keep this one relatively brief :)

500 posts
86,000+ page views
971 comments

Posts tagged with:
nail polish: 63
skincare: 47
lipstick: 38
eyeshadow: 36
Fragrance Friday: 29
blush: 28
lip gloss: 25 (how the hell do I have so many posts on a product I generally dislike?!)
lip balm: 23
cleanser: 18
oil control: 16

Most-viewed post:
Holika Holika Petit BB SPF 30: This got to be too dark for me in the winter, so I stuck it away in my drawer and forgot about it. It's over a year old now, so I should probably just throw it out...

Post that took me longest to write:
Affordable Makeup Brush Guide, which desperately needs to be updated, though that will probably have to wait until winter break.

As far as the Beyond part of the blog goes, I've written 6 posts tagged with adorables, 3 with drunken ramblings, 6 with personal, and 11 with just straight-up ramblings, many of which are cross-tagged with each other. I am very much not one of those people who can keep their life and blog separate, and this blog is a reflection of that; I am still very amazed that anyone decides to hang around here!

I think BJB has changed a lot over 500 posts, but the important thing for me, at least, is that it is a place for me to escape, and for that, I must thank you all. Thank you for listening to me blab about beauty, thank you for your kindness and support in my times of need, and thank you for inspiring me. I don't always give the blog as much time as I would like, and am pretty terrible about commenting, but I so enjoy every bit of time I get to spend with you all. So thank you! And here's to the next 500.

Fragrance Friday

So, I didn't post one of these last week, because I was sad. And this one is rather paltry, because I had my stats midterm on Thursday and didn't have time or energy to write about many perfumes. But I will try and catch up for next week! Because I've got a lot of perfumes to yammer about...

Piguet Bandit (Chypre Floral: aldehydes, orange, ylang-ylang, bergamot, galbanum, gardenia, artemisia, neroli, tuberose, rose, jasmine, violet root, carnation, coconut, musk, patchouli, leather, civet, oakmoss, vetiver, amber, myrrh): This is the new version, which has still been received quite well by the perfume community. It's a leather chypre (though look at that list of notes! what the heck!), which is distinctly chypre from a distance, but I get armpit from up close. Major musk going on up in there. I have only worn it dabbed, though, so I'll have to see how it performs sprayed.