Indie Memory Box Holidays' Past 2015 Swatches

Ahhh, I've been doing so well with blogging on time except for this ONE order.  The Indie Memory Box is a company formed by several different indie owners.  Their first box, the Holiday's Past, is comprised of many guest indie products with their respective owners sharing their favorite and most memorable holidays.  The box was around $120 for many exclusive full sized items.  The price is a lot steeper than I'm used to spending, but a lot of companies I like were part of the box, so I definitely wanted the exclusive items.  Now, I'm not into bath, body, or perfume products, so I may not be able to give a great review on those, but I do appreciate the chance to try them out (except for bath salts because I don't have a bathtub :( ).

The packaging was beautiful, as you'll see in pictures below.  Info cards were given for each company with the product description, favorite memory, and a recipe on the back of each card.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading the cards more than anything in the box.  The cards and memories felt so personal and added such a beautiful touch.  I definitely took my time and read through all of them before opening anything else in the box.

Info cards

Pictures taken under LED bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Chrismukkah

Chrismukkah:  white with pink and gold sparkles.  This was from Corvus Cosmetics, one of my favorite companies, and I'm always extremely impressed with their lighter shades.  It seems hard for companies to do pigmented light shades, yet Corvus' always show up great even over regular primer.

Balmy Summers

Balmy Summers:  orange with strong gold green duochrome.  This was from Femme Fatale, an Australian company known for their duochromes.  However, I've experienced many leaky jars from them.  So much so that even after I clean up the mess, it still leaks afterward.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning:  warm taupe with blue microshimmers.  This was from Dawn Eyes Cosmetics, a company that I really enjoy because of their quick TAT and cheap prices.

Snow Lodge

Snow Lodge:  milk chocolate with blue and silver shimmers.  This was from Mad Lab Cosmetics and reminds me a lot of hot chocolate!  

Children of the Stars

Children of the Stars:  purple with gold sparkles and blue shimmers.  This was a beautiful shadow from Innocent + Twisted Alchemy!  I'm usually not a fan of purples, but this is such a rich color and I'm a fan of I+T's formula.  I'm excited to work this into a look.

Winter of '94

Winter of '94:  mint, green, and purple glitter.  This was a glitter from Glamour Doll Eyes applied over their Glitter Fix.  The Glitter Fix has a watery consistency, similar to NM Shadow Bind.  I don't yet know how I'll be using the glitter, perhaps with some lip art if it's lip safe?

Chrismukkah, Balmy Summers, Christmas Morning, Snow Lodge, Children of the Stars, Winter of '94

Lunar New Year Gravity

Lunar New Year Gravity:  light bronze primer, slightly tacky.  This was a beautiful primer from Dark Matter Makeup!  I don't use colored bases often, but it's beautiful on it's own so I wouldn't mind experimenting with it as a cream shadow.

Winter's Glow

Winter's Glow:  pale pink highlighter with pink sparkles.  This was a highlighter from Rascal Cosmetics, heavily applied over bare skin.

Hellebore

Hellebore:  pink blush with gold shimmers.  This was from Howl Cosmetics that recently just reopened.

Snow Bunny

Snow Bunny:  sheer rosy brown gloss with gold shimmers.  This was a gloss from Shiro Cosmetics.  It's a bit sheer, but I absolutely love the snowman on the label!

Two Turtle Doves

Two Turtle Doves:  opaque pink lipstick with gold shimmers.  This was from Preen Cosmetics, who are still closed due to the owner recovering from surgery.

Lunar New Year Gravity, Winter's Glow, Hellebore, Snow Bunny, Two Turtle Doves

Fall Folly

Fall Folly:  orange spice tea scent.  This was a clear lip balm from Ten Three Labs.

Cream of Life

Cream of Life:  lip scrub from the now closed Kae Q.  I'm currently using ELF's Lip Exfoliator so I'm interested in seeing how it stacks up!

Cuticle Oil

Cuticle Oil:  Cuticle oil from Leesha's Lacquer.  My hands are always dry, so this will make my nails look nice at least.

Rota Fortunae

Rota Fortunae:  "rich, smoky oudh and comice pears are topped with sweet clouds of russian tea cakes, marshmallows, bourbon vanilla, tahitian vanilla, and sugarcane."  This was from Arcana and I'm not good with perfumes so the description was straight from the company.

Arroz Con Leche

Arroz Con Leche:  This was a soap from Uponaworld Cosmetics.  I own their Green Tea/Match soap and haven't actually used it yet so I'm excited to have another bar.  (I swear I will use it eventually, I just need to finish all my Wholly Hemp bars first!)

No Bake Cheesecake Lotion

No Bake Cheesecake Lotion:  This was a lotion from Sunsets and Seas.  It's owned by the same person that created Hello Waffle Cosmetics.  I have yet to try this lotion out, but I've been hearing great things about it.

Bavarian Apple Torte

Bavarian Apple Torte:  This was a bath soak from Smelly Yeti Perfumery.  I'm so sad I don't have a tub because I would love to soak in something apple scented!

Messe de Minuit

Messe de Minuit:  "a swirl of church incense, wood, boughs of balsam fir swagged with sugar-frosted cranberries".  This was a sample from Poesie Perfume, another company I hadn't tried out.  I don't like incense scents though, so I might give this one away.  

Overall, the Indie Memory Box was a delight to open and read.  There were a good mix of cosmetics and body products.  Unfortunately, I don't use body products all too often and the price is a bit steep, so I'm not sure if I will be purchasing future boxes.  I think a good option would be splitting the box into two options - one for cosmetics and one for bath and body.  I'm still happy I tried out the first Indie Memory Box ever, and it just happened to be about the holidays, which I love as well.

- Jolie ♥