The Makeup Monologues

Here I am. About to embark on the single most in-depth review I've attempted, my Shiro Cosmetics indie eyeshadows. (Note: Bog Body is made by Detrivore Cosmetics and thus will not be featured in this review.) Shiro is a popular indie company that boasts "handcrafted makeup and geekery". They carry other brands in their online shop as well, such as Detrivore, Victorian Disco and Femme Fatale cosmetics. They offer a wide selection of cosmetics, including custom lip glosses, finishing powders, contouring powders, and blush- but their pièce de résistance is their fandom-themed loose eyeshadows. First off, I'm going to say: I love their online shop. It's so well put together and their product shots are gorgeous, and I browse without the intent to buy anything a lot because it's such a pleasant site to be on! Their checkout works very well, too, and their shipping prices are good, especially for an indie company. It took them about 10 days to...

And the scramble to review my indies continues! Today I have my Whipped Cream Soap from Little Luxuries Soapworks. Little Luxuries Soapworks, or Lilux, is an indie bath and body company based out of Nova Scotia, Canada. I have the 200g jar of their Whipped Cream Soap. I believe I paid around 6 dollars CAD.  The label is paper, which I think is a little silly considering it's supposed to go into the shower with you. It's wrinkled but legible after a month of shower use, though. I got the scent vanilla. It also comes in an unscented version. The soap is fluffy, like a meringue. It's not actually supposed to be pink, I bought a batch that was discounted because the colour turned out wrong. I love the pink colour though, and it doesn't stain my skin or tub! I believe the original colour is supposed to be white. To use the soap, I just unscrew the cap and dab my shower poof into the jar. A little goes a long, long way. It smells like vanilla soft-serve ic...

Can you tell I'm trying to review all of my indies before the month is over? No but really, today I'm reviewing a product that, spoiler alert, I love. That product is Lilux Soapworks' Sugar Cube Scrub in Apricots and Honey. Little Luxuries Soapworks is an indie bath and body company based out of Nova Scotia, Canada. First, let me express how impressed I am by this genius and unique concept. I'm used to buying/making sugar scrubs in tubs; and scooping them out a bit at a time to use so the contents of the jar wouldn't get all watery and crusty from being exposed to the shower. I'd keep the hunk of scrub that I'd scooped out on a candle lid on a shelf in my shower. These cubes are a game changer. Instructions: " Take a cube or two into the shower, and smoosh them in your palm with a bit of water. Scrub away dry skin and moisturize in one step! *Not for use on face. May make tub slippery. Getting water into bottle will shorten shelf life....

A deodorant review?! Okay, Megan's officially jumped off the cosmetics train. Okay, no she hasn't, she just really loves indie Canadian brands, okay? Now she's going to stop referring to herself in the third person. So here's the object of this review, Simply Suds Lavender Deodorant. It's an all-natural stick deodorant from Simply Suds, a skincare and soap brand based out of my city's neighbour- beautiful North Bay, Ontario. I picked this up at a boutique in the North Bay downtown on a gorgeous summer day. It was one of the best days of my life, to be honest.  Okay, okay, onto the deodorant itself. I'll be completely transparent here. I didn't buy this because I think normal deodorant is dangerous or anything. I mean, it might be, but I just bought this because it's local. It's good for you, and doesn't contain aluminium, which is good, but it's not garnering any higher of a rating from me for its natural characteristics....

Spoiler alert: this stuff is great. You can see here that I'm reviewing four bottles of Country Cabin's Intense Moisturizing Lotion, but actually I have more. I've probably bought around ten or twelve of these, as they make amazing gifts. Country Cabin Candles and Soaps is an independent brand based in Val Caron, Ontario, and you can buy their products off their website, or at one of twelve (I think) locations around the Northern Ontario-Sudbury area. I buy mine from the Walden Guardian drugstore by my home. The brand also offers soy candles, body butters, goat's milk soap (they are SO cute) and soy wax melts! I want to get some of the melts for when I go off to university where I can't use candles. I keep one of these bottles everywhere in the house and these are the scents I could track down for my review:  Lilac, Oatmeal Milk 'n' Honey, Ruby Red Grapefruit, and Sweet Orange Chili Pepper. Lilac doesn't smell exactly like lilacs- it smells like...

Now here's a product I have a strange relationship with. Honestly, the relationship between me and this tub of body butter is fanfiction-worthy. When it first arrived in the mail, I didn't like anything about it. Seriously, nothing. It was smaller than I thought it would be- certainly smaller than any other body butter I owned- the scent, sniffed cold, was abrasively artificial, and the texture and ingredients- well, it seemed like something I could easily make in my own kitchen! What a rip-off. What a disappointment. What a tragedy. Then I used it a few times ... and it was love. It gradually grew on me. The unique, indescribable sound it makes when I pick some up with my fingers... and the scent, oh god, the scent. I slathered myself in this so much, and when I ran out of places to apply it, I tried to eat it. I'm being 100% serious here; I tried to eat my body butter. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. Body butter entered my mouth at some point. ...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I haven't done a review in a very long time, and this review is going to be different than the others- it's a skincare product! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... the Wunderbar Soap Whipped Shaving Butter in Amber Romance! I purchased this off of Wunderbar's etsy store when I was going on a huge binge-buy of Canadian indie brands, and this piqued my interest. Shaving...butter? My little sister always steals all of my shaving cream, so I figured if I got something more inconspicuous, that might prevent it from disappearing. However, my little brother loves it, dispelling the "for her" on the product name. He also loves Victoria's Secret Gingerbread Woman bubble bath. You go, lil' bro. The whipped shaving butter is very dense in consistency, waxy almost, like butter straight out of the freezer. You have to scrape bits off with your fingers, which isn't too user-friendly.  T...