Sale At LovePotionPerfume.com

  It's that time again, well it's been that time for a couple weeks now, actually. Once yearly, my favorite artisan fragrance e-tailer, http://www.lovepotionperfume.com/, has a clearance sale. As you can see from the above picture, I went a little crazy. I ended up with 6 free bottles, 2 of which I was generous enough to give my husband, in addition to the special bottle of Love Potion #9 that I picked up for him. Of course I stocked up on the basics (Love Potion, Love Potion Red, & Topper), & I was able to snag a couple that I've been eyeing for awhile; their version of Florida Water, Happy Water, Get Happy, Spider Silk, & Egg. All very interesting names, but trust me, they're all amazing perfumes! There are actually 2 sales going on for members of their online forum, which is accessible through their website. The box pictured is from their buy two/get one sale, with extras thrown in at higher levels of spending. I also took advantage of the other sale happening concurrently, with bottles being priced at $10 for that one. I saw a couple favorites listed in the $10 bin & panicked, lol. I definitely encourage anyone reading to try this company & try them now.

My Skin Actives Experience

From left to right; 1.Collagen Serum, 2.My own concoction, 3.Vitamin A cream, 4.DMAE Serum

*Disclaimer, I have purchased all these products entirely with my own money & these are my opinions (& no one else's) about this brand. Also all photos are the exclusive property of Beccah's Meccah

  Since last December I've been using Skin Actives almost exclusively for my skincare needs. When I was using the line as recommended, people were guessing me a lot younger than my actual age. Now, this summer I kind of went through a stress meltdown & resorted to alcohol to resolve these stress issues. Here's where my Skin Actives collection has achieved superstardom in my skincare routine. Even though I've been taking terrible care of myself these last 4 months, people are still guessing me at my age or younger. This is amazing because I've gotten into the habit of falling asleep in my makeup & drinking beer or wine nightly. Either factor is well known to be disastrous for nice looking skin of their own accord, but the combo is especially hard on over 30 skin. Anyway, I'm remedying that, last night I made it to bed, having managed to properly remove my makeup & adhere to a nighttime routine including the Vit. A cream, & collagen serum (pictured above). Also including Skin Actives' Bright-I serum & eye cream (not pictured). As my reward, I woke up to glowing skin this morning, yay.

  On to the DIY products. Pictured on the right is Sea Kelp Coral. From http://www.skinactives.com/home.php: "Our amazing Sea Kelp Bioferment can be used as a great nutritive active or as a base for our other products. As a base it is perfect for users with oily skin types as it moisturizes without supplying extra oil. It is also incredibly effective for normal and dry skin, as it is a powerful nutritive moisturizer. This active is the major building block for most of our 'Ready to Use' product line - from creams to serums to washes, it is the perfect active for almost any purpose." My purpose is to add this to my DIY face spray. I use the spray for toning, refreshing my skin, as a leave-in hair conditioner, & etc.. It's a nice little multi-purpose gel that I keep in the fridge so that I can also use it on burns & minor cuts in conjunction with my aloe plant. If you're interested in my Face Spritz recipe, let me know in the comments.

This is the unlabeled jar's contents. It's my own concoction of various additives & the Beginner's Formulation Kit. I let my best friend have a small sample & she told me that I should sell it! I have the various actives that I used listed on the Skin Actives forum, but the ones that gave my cream that strong color are the green tea & coffee berry extracts. It is easy to overdo it with creating your own creams, because a cream can only take so much being added to it & still maintain it's integrity as a cream formulation, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The only thing I would change is that I didn't fully let the ceramides dissolve before I added them to my cream. So it has a bit of a gritty texture, but it's still not too shabby, even for having suffered from my rookie mistake. Just for fun, I've
uploaded a picture of the active GABA I have leftover from making my concoction (it's in the tube). Isn't science fun? Since I added a ton of antioxidants  to it, this is my daytime cream. I use it along with the Bright-I cream, Collagen Serum, & occasionally the DMAE serum, for my morning routine. I do switch it up with the occasional sample I get from Sephora, but I don't find myself spending money with other skincare brands since I began using Skin Actives. I am really impressed with everything I have so far & look forward to trying the new items in their lineup & also the TCA Spot Peel Kit. My pores are smaller, my face is firmer, & my skin is more even for having tried this skincare company. I've been promised all these things from other skincare companies, but Skin Actives is the only company that has done what they said they're going to do. The expensive companies usually deliver on one of those promises, & rarely, the drugstore brands also do, but the this is the only company that has truly kept it's promises. They've also gotten even better for new people to try, because they offer samples sizes of their popular products now, in addition to their money back guarantee & excellent customer service. The samples are great for newcomers  to familiarize themselves with Skin Actives or for current converts to use as travel sizes.

Do You Hoodoo? Pt.2

'11/'13 Spell Collections www.lovepotionperfume.com

  I don't think you can see in the picture, but I lined up the Spell Potions from the '11 collections next to the '13 potions that have similar intents. From left to right; Love Drawing('11)/Smitten Kitten('13), Mojo Oil('11)/Whisker Wishes('13), Jinx No More('11)/Black Cat Hex Breaker('13), Lady Luck('11)/Lucky Dog('13). You'll have to hit their website for detailed description of what each potion is intended for.

 When you get your package from Love Potion, they send a bookmark with instructions on how to use their perfume oils, the perfume bottles & samples also come in very nicely beaded, shimmer style favor bags. Love Potion makes perfume, so there Hoodoo based LEs are not going to be in the traditional style of Hoodoo with corresponding herbs, minerals, & etc. that's usually thrown into the bottles. They do not use synthetic fragrance oils, however, & the master bottles are empowered w/a big dose of intent. In my experience, these are great & I'm very excited to try the August/September sampler sets I just received.

On the left are a couple of the oils I purchased from Conjured Cardea. They smell nice & work well to anoint candles with, but they smell metallic when I add them to my loose incenses. Actually, the Love Potion perfume oils are the only ones that smell nice when I add them to loose incense cones. Anyway, Moma Sarah (the proprietor of http://conjuredcardea.indiemade.com/  & http://www.zibbet.com/ConjuredCardea ) is very nice & she offers a 20% discount to single mothers. On the right are a couple of the Lucky Mojo oils I own. Those don't smell very nice added to incense either, but they do last a bit longer on my skin than CC's do. Although they still don't have the staying power of perfume. 6-24-14 Update! Man, the Conjured Cardea oils pack a wallop. I hadn't paid much attention to Bewitching, as I was focused on using Queen B*tch (for various reasons). Anyway, the Bewitching oil from CC is fracking crazy! I swear it's like spiritual photoshop or something. People are indeed bewitched by me when I wear it. I think every woman should have this condition oil in her arsenal, if old fashioned conjure oils are your thing ;)

Do You Hoodoo? Pt.1

  I am into interesting looking things. I love fancy little boxes & jars, pretty perfume bottles, and basically anything that looks out of the ordinary.  I collect perfumes from LPMP & hoodoo oils especially. I like LPMP's perfumes so much because I know that somebody made them with their own two hands & expertise. They didn't come rolling off of an assembly line. When you order a private edition, that means that the proprietor makes that specific bottle of perfume oil just for you. How neat! It also helps that I'm friends with the owner, Mara Fox; I know that she is a generous & kind human being, who gives back a lot of the income she makes toward making the planet a better place. This takes me off track from the matter at hand though.  http://www.lovepotionperfume.com/ has released their 2013 Spell Collection, based on traditional Hoodoo recipes & this has inspired me to blog about good old fashioned Hoodoo oils.
 Traditionally, hoodoo oils are chunky, like the Lucky Mojo Curio oils in the first picture. They smell nice, but they aren't perfume, so the smell fades rather quickly. Over the last two years, I have really gotten into Lucky Mojo Curios oils http://www.luckymojo.com/catalogue.html . They look cool, they smell nice, & they work! The staff at that company have the ability to pack a large wallop of intent into their 1/2 ounce bottles. Unfortunately, I didn't have a great experience buying directly from them. I guess they were in the middle of a staff restructuring & their shipping was CRAZY slow. I have been acquiring their oils from other sources, & regardless of their shipping capabilities, their oils are the gold standard for true Hoodoo oils currently available in the market place. Taking that into consideration, when I have funds available, I will be scooping up their 12 oil deal! So far I own 12 of their oils; including Money Stay With Me & Crown of Success. I got a few others for personal uses that I'm not really comfortable discussing, but they all work for me. The fact that I own 12 & I'm looking to acquire another 12, for starters, should tell you something, anyway.

 Normally hoodoo oils are chunky, the bottles contain various herbs, roots, minerals, & etc. that are appropriate to the intentions of the formula. They may also be dyed a corresponding color. (I love when they lightly color a formula, it looks pretty to me.) Perfume & essential oils may also be added if it benefits the work that the oil is intended for. Don't get suckered into buying the cheap synthetics, as I have before! I have a bunch of oils, in 1 dram bottles, that I won't be using anytime soon. They're nothing but mineral oil, perfume, & dye. I can't even add them to my loose incenses because they smoke black. I won't name the brand, but it's not hard to find them & they're very low priced. Just stay away, those kind of oils are cheap for a reason.
 

 I was planning on doing some reviews, but the day has taken a turn for the worse. I'm feeling inspired to discuss depression. How it feels to suffer from anxiety, sadness, low self esteem, & how do you deal with these feelings of despair. Do you self medicate, take a prescription, exercise & eat right? Whatever I'm doing doesn't seem to be working (read nothing), but I have learned in a Psychology class that journaling for twenty minutes a day can be as effective to treat depression as prescription drugs. For me, having depression/anxiety feels like there is this wall between me & the rest of the world. Sometimes I am free to have fun & socialize with others. Sometimes I am completely isolated, & nobody understands why I can't interact with them, especially my children.  I literally feel unable to speak at the worst of times. Other times, I will spend as much as 24 hours crying, along with being denied the sweet embrace of sleep's escape. I can't find anybody else attractive, least of all myself. I don't know what helps. I am struggling through this along with the rest you. I want to hear what it's like for you! Please share in the comments.
TTFN, Beccah.

  Oh my word, I have had a crazy summer! Now that it's about over, I will be getting back to business & keeping up with this bog :)  Just a short review for today, no pictures, because I have http://www.lovepotionperfume.com/'s August releases to review yet, for my YouTube channel. Right now I'm in love with CoverGirl's Outlast foundation, but not the color range available within it :/ Luckily I can wear it in shade 820, when I'm all painted w/ faux tanner. Otherwise, their fairer shades are only suitable for cool skin undertones. (I'm a warm leaning neutral undertone.)
 The Beauty Blender is on mind currently. I thought I'd get back into using makeup sponges w/ the Earth Therapeutics blending sponges I can only seem to find at my local Ross & I have not been disappointed! The finish I get from using a sponge is more perfect than using my Real Techniques brushes or my fingers. After this experiment, I HAD to get my hands on a Beauty Blender. I literally couldn't sleep thinking about it. Now that it's here, I will be trying it out today. After I get done with my notes for my LPMP August collection of perfumes, of course.
TTFN, Beccah