Checking Out Aromaleigh's April Ephemera Box

Disclaimer: I am currently in the process of reswatching duochromes and photographing them differently to give my readers a more accurate depiction of the shifts. Please be patient while I go through the process of updating my past reviews. :)

Hey, guys! Today I'm going to show you guys what the lovely Kristen included in her April Ephemera Box. The March box was fabulous and inspired by Norse mythology, and I loved this box even more. The inspiration was Floralia, an Ancient Roman holiday that celebrated Flora, the Goddess of Spring, flowers, and youthful pleasures. This was such a great choice for a Spring box. I've only been really into makeup since Autumn of last year, so my collection is all deep oranges, dark purples, browns, and nudes. I'm excited to bring some peaches, greens, and other pastels into the mix for Spring!

As per usual, blush and highlighter swatches are done under bare skin and buffed out slightly. Shadow swatches are done over, from left to right, bare skin, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (this excludes the cream shadow I reviewed, which is over bare skin only). All quoted descriptions are taken off the little informative paper included in the Ephemera Box.

L-R, T-B: Vernal Roses, Realm of Flora, Locus of Desire, Metamorphose
La Plus Heureuse, Minthe, GDE Floralia

This box included a blush, a multipurpose highlighter, four powder shadows, and a cream shadow from the indie guest, Glamour Doll Eyes. As I said earlier in my post, this box was inspired by Floralia, and here's what Kristen wrote about the festival:

"The Queen of Spring was a beautiful and serene Goddess. She was married to Zephyrus, the west wind. Flora is the twin sister to Faunus, the god of wild creatures. She was originally called Sabine, and was known as Chloris to the Greeks. Offerings of milk and honey were made on this day and the surrounding five days, which comprised the Florifertum and Ludi Florales. The city would have been decorated in flowers, and the people would wear floral wreaths or flowers in their hair. Day and night there were games, pantomimes, and theatre with people of all classes in their brightest clothes. The color names are inspirations from reading Ovid's 'Fasti', a long-form poem with described the origin of many Roman festivals. Numerous painting, such as Tiepolo's Triumph of Flora and Poussin's Realm of Flora, are inspired by Ovid's work."

Vernal Roses (blush): "a muted, mostly matte mauved rose with delicate copper shimmer"

This.. was incredibly sheer. I put up the white flag and took this picture after five heavy applications. If you're looking for an indie blush that isn't intimidating with its pigmentation, this is for you, and it'll be available on Aromaleigh's site in two months with the other extras from this box. However, this was really disappointing to me. The blush from the March box was beautifully pigmented, so this was a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

Realm of Flora (multipurpose highlighter): "a pale creamy peach with a violet highlight"

This was also very, very sheer. It also didn't help that it just about matched my skintone perfectly. It did have a good amount of sparkle to it though, so I'll use this for subtle highlights on my cheeks and on the inner corner of my eyes.

Locus of Desire: "a soft coral peach frost with golden shimmer"

Okay, now we're getting somewhere! Spring has inspired me to dive into the world of peach shadows, and I love Locus of Desire. It's very delicate over bare skin and primer, and really amps up over Pixie Epoxy. I'll combine this with pinks and golds for simple eye looks.

Metamorphose: "a midtone mauve with buff tones, and green/chartreuse interference highlights"

This was included in last month's box as a hint, and I'm so happy to have a full size of it. It's pretty consistently pigmented over bare skin, primer, and glitter glue, so I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. It'll pair beautifully with Locus of Desire.

La Plus Heureuse: official description unavailable; I would call it a dusty grey-purple with subtle silver sparks.

This is the hint for next month's box, and my guess is that it will be inspired by Anne Boleyn! I think this was an interesting shadow to include in this box, considering how similar it is to Metamorphose.

Minthe: official description unavailable; I would call it a muted semi-matte mint/sea foam green.

This shadow is such a beautiful color in the jar, but it applies very sheer, even over Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken after three heavy applications.

Floralia (cream shadow): official description unavailable. I would call it an orange-toned pink with baby blue shimmer.

The paper included with the Ephemera box says this shadow is available for purchase in full-size on the Glamour Doll Eyes site, but I'm not able to find it. This is my first experience with a cream shadow, so I don't have much insight as to whether or not this is a "good" cream product. I do know the color is vibrant and the shift is beautiful. I'll have to teach myself how to apply this properly. This is also my first product from GDE, and now I'm having to restrain myself from placing an order! Low-buys are hard!

Well, that wraps up my review of this month's box! Overall, it was alright. I really liked 3/7 of the products, but the others have problems with sheerness/are too similar to another product in the box. I was really excited for this box, and I felt it had a lot of potential. I'm still subscribed to the Ephemeras, and I'm hoping May's box is more consistent in terms of product quality.

Swatches and Review of Aromaleigh's March Ephemera Box

Disclaimer: I am currently in the process of reswatching duochromes and photographing them differently to give my readers a more accurate depiction of the shifts. Please be patient while I go through the process of updating my past reviews. :)

This is horribly belated, but I love this box so much that I'd rather review late than never! My lovely fiance, Charles, gifted me the Aromaleigh Ephemera Box subscription for Valentine's Day. Nothing says love like a little box of makeup treasures every month! This was the first box I received, and it's inspired by Norse Mythology. Most know their Norse Mythology from watching movies about vikings, or your interest grew when you saw that Chris Hemsworth was set to play Thor. Personally, I know my Norse legends from playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. I have no shame in this, and I will wave my Stormcloak banner high until the day I die. If you side with the Imperials, there's a little red X button at the top right of your screen. Go ahead and click that. I kid (only a little).

Anyway, let's dive into the contents of the March Emphemera Box!

This box included one full-sized blush, three full-sized shadows, two shadow sample baggies (which I poured into jars as usual), and a sample of a Kiss My Sass lip gloss. There were also two Swedish Fish candies, but those were long gone by the time I took pictures. Extras of this box will be made available on Aromaleigh's site in May.

All shadow swatches are taken over, from left to right, bare skin, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. Blush swatches are applied over bare skin, with a heavy swatch on top and a blended out swatch on the bottom. Lip product swatches are taken over exfoliated and moisturized lips. The skin around my lips is blurred to hide imperfections, but otherwise, no editing is done. Product descriptions are taken directly off the product description sheet found in the March Ephemera Box, off a post on Aromaleigh's blog, the Aromaleigh website itself, and Kiss My Sass's website. If you have any questions as to where I pulled individual descriptions from, please don't hesitate to ask.

L-R, T-B: Valkyrie, Ragnarok, Valhalla, Yggdrasil

Next Month's Hint, Carina, Kiss My Sass Sheer Lip Glaze in Daydreams

Valkyrie: "an easy-wear, soft warm rose shade". Inspired by the choosers of the slain, who hovered over battlefields, decided warrior's fates, and showed the fallen the way to Valhalla or Folkvangr. Don't make a Valkyrie angry, or it's a spear to the leg and a swift trip to Folkvangr for you.

Kristen dubbed this a "Your cheeks but better" shade, and she couldn't be more right. When I blend Valkyrie out, it gives me a delicate rosy flush. This blush is also incredibly pigmented, so this full size might just last me a lifetime. Valkyrie was my first indie blush, and I couldn't have been happier.

Ragnarok: "a deep, reddish brown with gold/green interference shimmer". Inspired by the Norse end of days. A prophecy depicted the falling of the Gods, the destruction of the earth, and the renewal of mankind after a great flood.

I didn't pick up any of the green shimmer. For me, this shadow is a deep, warm brown that almost has a metallic bronze finish over Pixie Epoxy. Over bare skin and primer, this is a flat brown. I can't complain about a brown shadow, though, because the three Norse themed shadows in this collection mesh together so well.

Valhalla: "a soft pale weathered gold with strong blue interference sparkle". Valhalla is the "hall of the slain", a beautiful hall in Asgard, where Odin welcomes his chosen fallen warriors with open arms and a bountiful buffet that never ends. (I'm going to be a little nerdy again. Skyrim's chosen Nords are sent to the Hall of Valor in Sovngarde when they perish, and I always think about how you get to travel there when I use this shadow. All of that food, mmm.)

Kristen's description is spot-on. This isn't a normal gold, or an antique gold. This is a soft pastel, with plenty of sparkle. It's ethereal and more than fit to represent Valhalla.

Yggdrasil: "a midtone heathered green with copper interference shimmer". Yggdrasil is a great yew tree that's central to Norse mythology and considered very holy. Its branches extend into the havens, and its roots extend into distant lands. Within Yggdrasil, majestic creatures dwell, and every day the Gods go to the great tree to assemble.

Before I started this post, I looked up pictures of the European Yew tree, which is the agreed species of tree that Yggdrasil was. This color is perfect. Yews are conifers, and the color of the foilage reminds me of the trees you find on Christmas Tree Farms. That subtely paled forest green is wonderfully replicated here. I did find that Yggdrasil performed the worst over bare skin, as it lost most of its dimension. Still, it's a gorgeous green.

Next Month's Hint (name not yet revealed): "a beautiful mauve shade with green/chartreuse interference shimmer"

Sneaky, sneaky Kristen, making us all guess the theme of the April Ephemera box! I didn't even attempt to. Later on, Kristen revealed the next box is inspired by the Ancient Roman festival of Floralia, a celebration of Flora, the goddess of flowers, vegetation and fertility. Floralia was a real party, complete with nude dancing prostitutes, the release of fertile hares and goats, and pelting each other with legumes. (I especially like the legume part.) Anyway, this is a muted, dusty mauve with green and yellow sparks. It applies beautifully over bare skin, primer, and adhesive. I have a feeling I'm going to love April's Ephemera Box.

Carina: "a rich violet with a strong teal duochrome shift"

This was originally a sneak peek of Aromaleigh's newest collection when the boxes were sent out. The Galactic Collection, Mission One has now been released, and Mission Two is set to blast off (hehe) in May. Carina is a major standout in Mission One with a strong duochrome that, of course, my camera just couldn't capture well. The teal shift is bright and has that glowing-from-within effect. If you can only snag one shadow from the Galactic Collection, grab Carina. The rest of Mission One is gorgeous, and the label art is amazing. Each shadow is inspired by NASA's beautiful pictures of places far away from our little planet Earth. Here's a look at the label art for Mission One:

(Carina is top center.)

Kiss My Sass Sheer Lip Glaze in Daydreams: "a sheer pale pink glow"

This has a faint pink shift in the package, but my lips unfortunately are that exact shade of pink. For me, personally, this may as well be a clear gloss. The minty smell is strong and the tingling sensation from the peppermint oil lasts a long time, so if you're not a fan of either of those things, steer clear of this gloss. Despite all that, I loved the consistency and texture of Daydreams. It's light and moisturizing. Not sticky at all. I'm definitely going to try out some of their more pigmented glosses in the future. The formula is great; this color in particular just didn't work well for my lips.

Well, this wraps up my crazy late post about Aromaleigh's March Ephemera Box! My next steps for Bellibone Beauty are to give the site a little makeover, as well as work on incorporating looks and videos into my reviews. I made a quick test video of my swatches tonight, so let me know what you like or don't like. Feedback is going to be critical for me while I try to get my blog at full potential. Thanks, everyone!