Twins or just sisters?

My mom, who knows me well, brought me two DelSol polishes from her cruise--Trick or Treat and Superhero. If you look at the bottle pictures, you can sort of see the adorable little spiderwebs all over--clearly, this is a Halloween polish! The colors looked familiar, so I compared Trick or Treat with FingerPaints Holly Good Time:

Indoors, without flash:





Indoors, with flash:





Both have red and gold glitter in a clear base, although the glitter in the DelSol is just a tiny bit brighter than the FingerPaints, and the DelSol has a bit of a green flash to it as well. Both remove about the same--not bad for glitters, but with a tendency to leave little sparkly bits all over my hands and cuticles. Neither was opaque in two coats, so I prefer to wear them over a base color, in this case Zoya Sam.

The real difference, though, is in the base. The clear base of the DelSol changes to black when exposed to UV light, and goes back to clear indoors or in shade, but the glitter still shows up strongly. Over a base color, the black doesn't show as black, it just darkens the color, in this case the red-brown of Sam:

Still angry with Lush

A very nice customer service person fixed my order, but the fact remains that the $52 credit she issued will take 3-5 business days to hit my account, where of course the debit came out immediately. I had to borrow $50 from my mom (who already thinks I waste money on Lush) to make a payment so I don't go over my limit, then I'll have to give the money back after the Lush credit hits.

I've said this before, but this time I am really done with Lush. I found out that I'm not the only person whose card was charged and a gift card ignored, and between that and the fact that Lush wants to keep on having these high-traffic chat parties and sales but won't beef up their servers, I can't continue to throw my money at them. It's going to be all about Lilypad and Skindecent from now on.

End of September/beginning of October haul

Two polishes my mom brought from Bar Harbor, Revlon Starry Pink, Revlon Blue Mosaic, Nubar Black Polka Dot and Nubar Contempo:

Stupid fracking Lush stuffed up AGAIN!

The only reason I would ever be insane enough to order from Lush during a special event is that one of my all-time favorite products was available and I had a gift card with a balance on it. The North American Lush website is slow as hell from the chat, but navigable. While thinking that Lush should know by now to beef up their damn servers when they know they're going to have a high volume of traffic, I select my products and go to check out.

First problem is that the cart won't accept my coupon. Fine. Remove the three relevant products from my cart (Hey, Lush, there goes $75 for you!) and enter the gift card number. It takes, so then I select ground shipping instead of air for a $2 savings (not much, but hey, money is money and I'm not dying for lack of these products). That shows, then I have to put in my MasterCard number to cover the balance left after the gift card, $10.55. Do that, take another look down the whole page, double-checking everything, and hit the button to finalize my order.

Go to my e-mail inbox, open the receipt from Lush, and see that they have charged THE WHOLE THING to my MasterCard AND charged me for air shipping. Panic and try to call them, line's busy. So I e-mailed, and right now I'm sitting here quivering with fury. If you still want the chat party info, it's now below this rant, but I am never ever again letting Lush suck me in to ordering. Even my beloved geranium-scented bath bomb is not worth the spike in my blood pressure.

As my friend Sally would say, "Fuckers!"




Wednesday, October 5th from 2 pm - 9pm PST.
Join our online party on Wednesday, October 5th from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm (PST) to celebrate the release of our Holiday Products! There will be limited edition products and LUSHious trivia with chances to win LUSH stuff.

Here’s a peek at the goodies we have to offer:

•Retro Christmas*
•Limited edition Halloween products and Day Of the Dead products*
•Web only specials*
Limited edition products available for the chat party:


- Iced Wine Jelly 240g $10.95
- Christmas Kisses Bubble Bar $6.95
- A Gold Star Bubble Bar $7.95
- Ruby Red Slippers Bubble Bar $6.95
- Bling Crosby Bubble Bar $7.95
- Green Party Bath Bomb $5.95
- Silver Cloud Bath Bomb $5.95
- Snowdrop Bath Bomb $5.95
- Jacko Ballistic Bath Bomb $5.95
- Cobweb Ballistic Bath Bomb $5.95
- Calacas Shower Jelly $5.95
- Lady Catrina Soap (100g) $6.95
- Pumpkin Knot Wrap $3.95
- Humango Bath Bomb $14.95
- Magic Bath Bomb $6.95


Halloween is upon us, Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas is just around the corner. So let’s get the holiday celebrations started early, let's P-A-R-T-Y!

*While supplies last



What's a chat party?
An interactive, online discussion by keyboard, like an MSN Messenger chat but with more people. We'll have a number of rooms online where us LUSHies can congregate and chat in real time. You'll need to sign in so you have a name in the rooms and can see who else is at the party. Everyone sees what everyone else types in, although two people can break off and have their own private keyboard chat. LUSH chat parties are open to everyone!

So at 2:00 P.M. PST, click here to chat!

My top ten autumn polishes

In no particular order:

Pinkie to thumb:

Zoya Blair, China Glaze Unplugged, Orly Meet Me Under the Mistloe, Orly Rock-It, Finger Paints Holly Good Time.




Pinkie to thumb:

Nubar Peacock Feathers, OPI The Show Must Go On!, Orly Galaxy Girl, Orly Lunar Eclipse and a secret you'll have to wait to find out about!

NOTD: Zoya Sam

Both because it is fall and because I am currently rocking micro-nubbins after last week's paw abuse seminar, I decided on a vampy color. Sam is either a reddish brown or a brownish red crème. This photo is two coats, before cleanup, and I can't make up my mind whether I should have used a third or not. I used Zoya's ridge-filling base, Get Even, and Zoya's topcoat, Armor, because I have found that Zoya polishes don't play well with others. Still, Zoya is a local company, the colors are fantastic, and the range of colors and finishes is phenomenal.

Indoor light, no flash:



Indoor light, with flash:

My top ten autumn scents from BPAL

#10:
Name: Mabon 2010
Lab Category: Halloween 2010
Lab Description: Blackberry wine and apple with hops, English ivy, rosemary, hazel, sage, chamomile, sweetgrass, oak bark, wild nuts, and myrrh.
My review: Just the perfect fall blend of fruits and a hint of spice and greenery.

#9:
Name: Hollyberry & Mistletoe
Lab Category: Yule 2008
Lab Description: Blood red holly berries and mistletoe accord.
My review: Pine laced with berries.

#8:
Name: Candles Moon 2010
Lab Category: A Little Lunacy
Lab Description: Moonlight shining on the Quickening Tree, the heat and wax of sacred candles, the milk of ewes, Brigid's blackberry, the sting of keening wind, and the last flutter of the Cailleach's winter snow.
My review: Wax and cream.

#7:
Name: Egg Moon 2010
Lab Category: A Little Lunacy
Lab Description: One egg's lower half transformed
And became the earth below,
And its upper half transmuted
And became the sky above;
From the yolk the sun was made,
Light of day to shine upon us;
From the white the moon was formed,
Light of night to gleam above us;
All the colored brighter bits
Rose to be the stars of heaven
And the darker crumbs changed into
Clouds and cloudlets in the sky.

The scent of Creation: frankincense, bdellium, sweet cane, cassia, cinnamon, and dammar gum.
My review: Sweet cinnamon without being sugary.

#6:
Name: Philologus
Lab Category: VILF
Lab Description: Ancient books, crackled parchment, faded incense, and candle wax. My review: Creamy and papery.

#5:
Name: Carlin
Lab Category: Halloween 2009
Lab Description: Black sage, ivy-twined rowan, thistle, snapdragon, heather, gorse, fumitory, and anise.
My review: Dandelions on the edge of rotting but not yet all the way there.

#4:
Name: Frumious Bandersnatch
Lab Category: Mad Tea Party
Lab Description: Bandersnatch musk, redolent of spicy carnations, wild plums and chrysanthemum.
My review: Fresh, this is a flirty, fruity, plummy carnation, a girl-next-door scent. Aged, this is a deep, sexy carnation, an order a pizza and molest the delivery driver scent.

#3:
Name: Gingerbread Poppet
Lab Category: Yule 2010
Lab Description: Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.
My review: Very little cake, thankfully, as I usually amp bakery scents, but lots of lovely spices, with the nutmeg being especially strong.

#2:
Name: Nanshe
Lab Category: Somnium
Lab Description: The Babylonian Goddess of Dreams, who bestows the power of Oneiromancy onto her priests. This blend opens up psychic sensitivity during sleep and aids in the understanding and correct interpretation of portents and symbols.
My review: Orange and clove in a perfect blend of spice and fruit.

#1: Name: The Schoolhouse
Lab Category: Halloween 2008
Lab Description: His school-house was a low building of one large room, rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and partly patched with leaves of old copy-books. It was most ingeniously secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set against the window shutters; so that, though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find some embarrassment in getting out; an idea most probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houton, from the mystery of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but pleasant situation just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook running close by, and a formidable birch tree growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive; interrupted now and then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone of menace or command; or, peradventure, by the appalling sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path of knowledge. Dandelion, white clover, balsam fir logs, and birchwood switches.
My review: Dandelion greens with a hint of pine.