Chagrin Valley Soap Haul

Thanks to all the wonderful ladies in the Everyday Minerals message board community, I finally decided to make a purchase with Chagrin Valley Soap & Craft Company, a family-run business that features soaps, body butters, salves and lip products made with pure organic ingredients. I had a really difficult time selecting my first batch, but finally decided on a full size of the following: Rhassoul Clay and Yogurt, Dead Sea Spa, Grapeseed and Shea (all complexion bars) and Chocolate Almond - this one I have no excuse for, except that it sounded yummy! I also purchased sample bars of Apples & Spice (a wonderfully fragrant seasonal soap), Herbal Mist, Cucumber Yogurt and Honey Butter (again, yummy!), along with their Honey Butter lip balm. I haven't even tried them yet and I'm already impressed! Service and shipping was fast, and the products are of high quality and very generous sizes. I will keep you posted!

Drugstore Haul: Physician's Formula Organic Wear

Took a trip during my lunch break to the local Rite-Aid, only to find that they were having one of their regular "Buy One, Get One 50% Off" sales for all Physician's Formula products. As I've mentioned in a previous post, they have recently come out with a special line of organic/all natural cosmetics called Organic Wear, so I snatched up another bottle of my HG Ultra Black mascara, along with a Black Woods Organic eyeliner pencil and two of their Superfruit lip glosses. It's so nice to have an easily accessible and natural brand like this available right around the corner. Reviews to come!

TKB Trading Haul

Here are some "samples" (at 1 tablespoon each they are hardly samples!) I've recently purchased from http://www.tkbtrading.com, a great wholesale site for cosmetics and crafting supplies. They are $1.50 per color and contain enough eyeshadow to basically fill an entire MAC pigment jar:

Click on photo for larger view

The colors are seriously gorgeous, highly pigmented and safe for the most part. Do be careful when ordering, though, as one of the colors I purchased (an otherwise lovely peachy-pink called "Cotton Candy") contained parabens. This information is disclosed on their site, however, so it was entirely my own error for ordering it! There are also a few colors which contain bismuth (a filler than can cause allergic reactions) and carmine (a brilliant red dye made from crushed scale insects), so you can determine whether or not you'd like to take a chance on those as well. Most of their colors, however, are simply a blend of various micas, iron oxides and titanium dioxide.

I've already placed my second order with them, as I was extremely pleased with my first shipment from them - the prices are outrageously good, and as I mentioned, the color payoff is wonderful as well. Shipping is also quick and reasonably priced. TKB Trading also features a vast array of oils, waxes, dyes and other makeup/candlemaking supplies if you are interested in making your own products at home (something I will be trying in the very near future). Happy shopping, everyone!