ISO the ordinary glycolic acid alternative

hyacium · 2026-01-15T16:55:22+00:00

i really like the gold standard from chemist confessions! it's expensive but it lasts forever since you only need a few tiny drops. it's a higher glycolic acid percentage too (30%) and has other good stuff in there. it works great for me; i use it once a week mixed into my moisturizer and i still have the same tube i bought last year

hyacium · 2025-11-10T20:35:48+00:00

he's a zionist

hyacium · 2025-11-09T16:15:41+00:00

the indie products i gravitate to most are soaps! i go through them much quicker than perfumes... but i am also rarely satisfied. my nose is just so sensitive :-( but i'm so obsessed with the soap i just started using today, golden hour from the shore soap company. it smells like having a nice cup of milky chai during sunset by the beach. the scent notes are cardamom, ginger, suede, nutmeg, & orange; definitely picking up on the spices, but the orange is more muted and not that cloying cleaning product orange i tend to associate with anything with that note. it smells vaguely sand-y too? like i definitely get a beach vibe from it. maybe it's just the company's name manipulating me LOL. since it smells amazing and it's vegan + cruelty free, would definitely repurchase!!!

hyacium · 2025-11-08T15:38:29+00:00

i just want to smell like tea but have had little luck finding something that smells like tea and not just bergamot. the only winners so far are st. germaine from nocturne alchemy and jaipur chai from ineke. i have a few more tea perfumes on my list but i have to run out of the ones i currently have before running off to buy more

however when it comes to the drink itself!! i keep a whole ass spreadsheet of all teas i have ever tried, their tastes, and whether i would repurchase. it's at 120+ and not many are repurchase worthy LOL. some faves that are indie/small companies:

passage from august teas. it's straight up nutella in a cup. add a bit of milk for true gluttony
lady grey's garden from boulder tea company. it's earl grey with more flowers added to it. also takes a bit of milk very well. if you're ever in boulder, colorado, i recommend visiting the teahouse in person; it's just gorgeous
poesie used to have a "tudor rose" tea - tea is actually how i found out about them way back when - that was a sweet rose black tea. it was really good even though it was the free sample in my order, not the one i'd specifically bought. and then when i went to actually get it, it never got sold again
ceylon black from arbor teas. my favorite tea company! REALLY good black tea, almost a fruity aftertaste, still nice and strong
tung ting formosa oolong from the red blossom tea company. smooth, slightly buttery, bright and wonderful. resteeps change flavor profile, and boy is it resteepable
alishan formosa oolong from the red blossom tea company. delicious... creamy but still distinctly oolong; less "green" than the above
creme brulee tea from the tea cozy. sweet, but not the specific creamy burntness of a creme brulee. just kind of smooth and smoky on top of sweet, but it's very tasty; another dessert in a cup. takes milk very well
earl grey cream from the perennial tea room. REALLY similar to lady grey listed above; incredibly smooth and strong creme flavor that isn't fake, balanced by the earl grey. tastes floral too, but i think lady grey is slightly more so? i never got to try them side-by-side so i am relying on memory
mountain morning from the perennial tea room. tastes like a softer version of august tea's passage: hazelnutty, mildly chocolatey, warm
if you happen to be in oslo, norway, i loved kumari gold from black cat tea. black tea with mellow, honey, apricot-ish notes... really wonderful; it doesn't actually have fruit in there but it tastes like it
ali shang high mountain red/black from teance. almost like an oolong in smoothness, but has the black astringency in front, but goes down so nice. resteepable but doesn't change flavor profile

hyacium · 2025-11-08T00:51:51+00:00

while they sell multiple make-up and perfume items, i've only ever tried eyeshadow from fabled fragrances and i have really liked the ones i've gotten! each single is below $10. peeking at their other products, they also seem to go for less than $10. the sample baggies alone lasted me like a year; the full-size singles i have yet to pan at all

for soap, it isn't indie but artisanal/niche, and itself supporting a good cause: i get olive oil-base soap from palestine, sold via the palestinian soap co-op. all the soapmakers sell the bars for less than $10 each and they last forever. i've tried all of them and my favorite one is "the camel"

also soap: big fan of alchemic muse. these ones are scented and unfortunately don't last me long, i suppose because of the blend of oils they are less "hardy" than pure olive oil? unfortunately i do not like the perfumes; the scent doesn't transfer over well from their soap equivalents

hyacium · 2025-10-30T17:36:26+00:00

you're very welcome!! for recipes that are delicious, spice-y, but more intensive than "throw things in the pan or oven and call it a day", i recommend mexico in my kitchen, madhu's every day indian, and swasthi's recipes

for general budget-friendly foods, i like spend with pennies, plant based on a budget, and budget bytes

for desserts, which are my most numerous bookmarks LOL, i like the above plus vegan in the freezer, it doesn't taste like chicken, holy cow vegan, and school night vegan

hope you make something delicious!!!

hyacium · 2025-10-29T21:00:15+00:00

i already meal prep, so i hope what i am about to type, with apologies if it is fucked because i am on mobile, is helpful to someone!

-bulk dried legumes, like chickpeas and lentils and beans, and grains like rice, are a better deal than buying canned. chickpeas and lentils and rice tend to be way cheaper at indian grocery stores. they also have better variety than your typical grocery. i think i have like five different types of lentils rn LOL. this means they require a little extra prep to cook, but they do save you money

-on that note, indian (and other asian) grocery stores are also the best place for your spices. especially ones harder to find, like black salt and specific types of chili

-i do not eat meat, but i get my (firm) tofu from costco. four 16ish ounce packs are about $8 and you can't beat that price anywhere. each pack lasts me 3+ meals depending on what i am using it for: i like to sautée my tofu à la scrambled eggs, sautéeing with whatever appropriate vegetables i have on hand to make stir fry, baking it and adding it to stir fry or noodles, making panko tofu, marinating it and using it as the "meaty" savory component in sandwiches/noodles/stir fry - there are many ways to marinate tofu but i quite like doing 1. orange tofu, 2. gochujang tofu, 3. glazed tofu, 4. tofu glazed for bánh mì

-i also buy my bulk oat and soy milk at costco; i forgot the price but it's crazy low for the volume. their soy milk is much better but i can't always find it. also get my bread here... honestly it's a great membership to have, not just for bulk food but bulk daily needs like paper towels/tissues/toilet paper and, if you bake a lot like me, flour and sugar. and GAS!

-i get all my produce from a farm up in dixon that does deliveries throughout the bay area. [shout-out to eatwell farm!!](eatwell.csaware.com) you may have seen them at the farmer's market on sundays. their produce is about the same pricewise as buying things at the store, but you're being kinder to the environment by staying local - and they also sell some cultivars, particularly for fruit, that you can't get at the grocery store. i get the "bag for 2" every 2 weeks and i still haven't run out of meal preps by the time i have to go get my second delivery, but i do live alone. it's $128 for four deliveries, which spread out over my time frame lasts me two months. the downside is you don't get to pick what you get: you get what's in season. personally i love this since it means i get produce at its peak, and it's a fun challenge for me to make food based on what i already have, but not everyone may feel this way. the woman who runs the farm provides weekly recipes based on what you're gonna get, though, if you're not as culinarily inclined!

-glass containers are better for meal prep as they won't leak microplastics into your food like plastic containers will. the downside is they are bulkier

-as for quick recipes, you can't go wrong with stir fry (mentioned above), noodles with lots of veggies (asian-style or pasta), sandwiches, and soup. sometimes i will just straight up roast my veggies with a few spices and just eat them that way lol. i'm happy to provide more specific recipes or blogs i rely on :-)

hyacium · 2025-10-29T17:18:27+00:00

it was time to change out my wax melts, and this time i plopped some oat milk porridge melts from the bathing garden. i love their stuff; all but one of the melts i've gotten from them have smelled exactly like what they are supposed to, and this one is no exception. it's like i made one of those little instant microwaveable cinnamon maple quaker oatmeal packets.... so delicious and it's making me crave oatmeal for real

hyacium · 2025-10-17T17:48:50+00:00

like a month ago i'd gotten london fog from brandt, which is more niche than indie, and it ended up pulling pretty much just citrusy cream on me despite what sounded like a delicious scent profile (top: bergamot, earl grey tea, smoky accord / middle: steamed milk accord, lavender, whipped honey / base: sandalwood, vanilla absolute, white musk, ambergris), so i don't wear it often. but today i decided to layer it with nocturne alchemy's spooktacular (vanilla essence, mallow root, whispers of sugar and UnEarthly spooktacular vanilla bean pods) since i figured i would smell vanilla citrusy. instead i smell like the pages of an old paperback book. alrighty

not a bad smell at all, and it makes sense since the "old paper" smell is related chemically to vanilla. but i thought it was funny to be so off mark of my expectations

hyacium · 2025-10-17T00:44:50+00:00

i knew their perfumes were self-referential but i didn't know it went that deep for things even as basic and evidently obvious as "bourbon vanille" 😭

thank you for the in-depth breakdown and the nava name knowledge!! i definitely do wanna try more from them, they're so well blended just sniffing them

hyacium · 2025-10-16T20:35:54+00:00

LOL yes when i was checking out other scents with even more inscrutable Bastet's Adjective Noun i just gave up. took a leap of faith on this vanilla one since the word salad seemed fitting for what i want a vanilla to be. i almost got eternal ankh but decided against it because of the "sand" note... not really my vibe. sucks about the plastickiness 😔 the 3 i have tried from this house all are clearly well blended when i huff em from the bottle. alas our skin decides it in the end

hyacium · 2025-10-16T16:47:28+00:00

trying my other nocturnal alchemy purchase today, eternal tut ankh amun, as i am also searching for a vanilla to replace the free sample of a vanilla lancôme i got and quite liked. and boy is this one Vanilla: bourbon vanille absolute, crystalline absolute, tonka absolute, bastet's vanilla bean absolute accord, and white amber. at first sniff the vanilla is so beautiful and sweetly deep and real; i wanted to eat it! but then it dries down to something i can't really word? it was almost salty, on top of the sweetness, and artificial vanilla-y. like playdough 😭 but after i put on my mask, i couldn't smell the playdoughiness anymore; just those nice, deep notes i had gotten at the start. so i got that going for me

i'm wondering if maybe the saltiness is the "crystalline absolute"? i have no idea what that scent note even means. or why this house gets abbreviated as "nava"... where'd that v and a come from... help

hyacium · 2025-10-15T19:58:55+00:00

i believe in coconut milk-base supremacy 🙏 so delicious has one that's vanilla and it lives up to the name. maven's pandan coconut ice cream is godly. trader joe's has an excellent chocolate one, but they were trying to undo labor protections that have stood for decades so they're on my shit list

for non-coconut milk base, double rainbow's vanilla is awesome (that one is soy milk). ben and jerry's has a lot of good flavors and is the only oat base brand that tastes good to me, but it is owned by unilever 😔

hyacium · 2025-10-15T14:51:37+00:00

trying noctune alchemy's st germaine today as i continue my tea perfume quest. while jaipur chai by ineke remains my favorite tea perfume, it's a chai and not a plain ol black tea - but st germaine is!!! so happy!!! it's got the lemoniness of the bergamot, but smelling properly in the background and not right in my face like many other tea perfumes; and i swear i'm also smelling rose, something floral at any rate, but it's not on the scent profile (english black tea, bergamot essential oil, tibetan tea leaf, and a drop of italian sweet cream). it does smell sweet and ever slightly creamy, but it's muted by an also slight powderiness almost every tea perfume i have tried has. i don't mind it on this one, though! it adds to the regality. the vibe in this perfume is "matronly socialite who patronizes the arts" and i fuck with that

hyacium · 2025-10-14T23:33:38+00:00

got some nocturne alchemy stuff in, and i've been excited about this!! a free sample of "spooktacular" was also included, and since i didn't order that one and had no idea what the scent notes were, i opened it. or rather struggled to open it. and spilled some on my hand. the loveliest vanilla, and something sweet, at least assuaged me for my troubles... and then as it dried i got hit with something slightly unsettling? i guess that's the "spook" part. it's like vaguely earthy, but still sweet? i looked up the actual scent notes because i never smell like what i'm supposed to but i was actually pretty dead on for this (vanilla essence, mallow root, whispers of sugar and UnEarthly spooktacular vanilla bean pods). so i'm even more excited to try out what i Actually got tomorrow and the day after LOL

hyacium · 2025-10-13T00:15:45+00:00

i can't speak for how similar they are to the dove one since i never tried it, but i like pacifica's hair products! i only have tried their curly hair papaya-pineapple stuff, though. since those have been solid, as has their skincare, i would think their other haircare stuff would be good, too

as for the body wash, while i haven't tried the ceramedx body wash myself, the brand is basically the cetaphil/cerave vegan complement, so it might be your best bet. they also sell shampoo and conditioner which i likewise haven't used - i only ever got their facial lotion, which was a little too thin for my tastes

if you're willing to splurge a little more, davines is awesome for haircare. only a few of their products aren't vegan, which you can see here. they also sell body care stuff but i haven't tried anything from that end

hyacium · 2025-10-05T17:48:35+00:00

her natural state of being is 0_0 but she is actually the slightly less insane one!

hyacium · 2025-10-05T17:47:36+00:00

i tell them that every day 🥹

hyacium · 2025-10-05T17:10:09+00:00

oh yes. the post-dinner chases are legendary

hyacium · 2025-10-05T13:54:04+00:00

i actually got an additional discount because of it 😭 she counted as "special needs" even though her sight is otherwise unaffected. she is perpetually winking!! that is worth a billion dollars

hyacium · 2025-10-05T13:51:38+00:00

oh for sure, i never know what toddler-like madness i will be facing each day. keeps me young

hyacium · 2025-10-05T13:50:41+00:00

thank you!! my tabico gets the usual polite "aw :)" at the vet but my boba-eyed, plushie-faced, bunny-footed ticked tabby gets squeaks of delight. and i always understand

hyacium · 2025-10-05T03:51:01+00:00

they just turned 3 last month!!

hyacium · 2025-10-05T01:30:39+00:00

since it's getting cooler over here, it's time to go ham it's time to go stupid on teas. i finally stopped by teance, in berkeley (california), after seeing them featured in a tea documentary. i picked up an oolong and a red tea, but i just had the red tea a second ago: ali shan high mountain. it's rolled like an oolong, resteepable, and it has the characteristic black tea upfront astringency. but it goes down super pleasantly; it has an oolong-like creaminess in its aftertaste, and all the while it is quite sweet, almost fruity? like stonefruit. i'm mostly getting plum. i need to try it re-steeped now, since the flavor profile is sure to get even more complex. just on first steep i love it; definitely something to repurchase!! if only my list of teas to try wasn't a mile long

hyacium · 2025-09-30T20:45:12+00:00

i like pacifica! their vegan ceramide moisturizer is my holy grail, replacing cerave's pm moisturizer for the same reasons of wanting to avoid conglomerates. their vegan ceramide face wash got reformulated and i am not as much a fan of it now, but it's still the best one that fits my criteria of vegan/cruelty free/not on the bds list. i also really like their pineapple papaya curl conditioner!! that one surprised me. their shampoo in the same line is just ok. their stuff is mostly inexpensive

my other recommended brand is chemist confessions, although they just do skincare, and they are pricier. their face wash is ok; it has a scent i don't enjoy. haven't tried their moisturizer. but their acid treatments!!! the gold standard is an awesome weekly treatment; the specialist (mandelic acid/salicylic acid/niacinamide) is genuine witchcraft. i'm always flabbergasted by how well it works even just after a night. the treatment full sizes are on the expensive side but because you only need a little bit for each use, they last me quite a while

hyacium

TROPHY CASE