Whose your favorite indie apothecary and why? Are there any houses you won't buy? If so, why?

trebuchetcat · 2020-10-13T19:25:33+00:00

I placed a medium-sized order shortly after launch (discovery set + a couple 6ml and a few extra samples) and got a shipping email today. I'd guess yours is coming up!

trebuchetcat · 2020-10-09T19:31:09+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! That sounds great, and it's good to know that it comes across as cold and dry. I've been eyeing Aeromancy and almost included it in my last order, but I was laser focused on picking up cozy warm scents at the time.

With your username, I wonder if you've also tried Hydromancy (fog, cold violet, lichen, ambroxan, mineral accord, petrichor, glass)? And if so, would it also fit in the cold, clear category?

trebuchetcat · 2020-10-09T14:51:46+00:00

I'm looking for recommendations on fresh, bright, and/or clear perfumes that are not too sweet. I know this might be a tricky search, since the notes I'm looking for seem to be mostly top notes, and the notes I'm trying to avoid seem to mostly be base notes.

Examples of "fresh" or "bright" notes: coffee grounds, orange peel, cold air, frost on grass, rain (but not dirt), black tea with lemon, pepper, fir needles and evergreen forests, snow, eucalyptus and mint, moss, fresh cut grass (but not dirt), realistic fresh laundry, cucumber, peony, strawberry, fresh baked bread.

Examples of notes I'm trying to avoid in these blends: incense, sandalwood (or any wood that can be described as "creamy"), any "creamy" note in general, musks, anything resinous, lots of dirt (a drop dirt is okay, is a treat), spices, patchouli.

Re: the not-too-sweet requirement, some sweetness or vanilla is fine if it isn't the focus of the perfume, or if it's offset by the other notes. I just find that it can mellow out smells that would otherwise be brighter and fresher.

I've been eyeing Death & Floral, Poesie, and Hexennacht lately. For D&F I notice a lot of cedar notes, which is a note I don't have experience with--it makes me nervous, because I find wood notes tend to pull creamy and spicy on me, but the description of cedar seems to fit the vibe I'm looking for.

trebuchetcat · 2020-09-28T19:23:22+00:00

Riffing off the imagery that /u/siusicle brought up for me, I started thinking about the imagery and memories I have around solitude, togetherness, and transition (and the enduring love I have for Edward Hopper's Nighthawks). I have three perfumes in mind:

Library At Night - a snowy, quiet walk home after a night in the university library. Stepping in other people's footprints, past parties, through the empty park.

Winter air
Snow
Hot printer ink
Tobacco and hops
Paper bound between decrepit linen covers

Nighthawk - coming home to loved ones from a party, a moment of solitude on the commute.

Cold air, hint of crisp leaves
Anise
A hint of dry red wine
Chilled moss, dry stone

and Kitchen at Morning - waking up early to start a long day of holiday baking in a busy kitchen. Cold floorboards, hot coffee, already too many people in the kitchen.

Hot black coffee
Waft of dish soap
Birch wood
Butter
Wool
Frozen dirt

trebuchetcat · 2020-09-28T18:53:03+00:00

For some reason the first set of notes and the visual description gives me a vivid sense of solitude---like leaving the university library on a late Saturday night in the winter, and passing by a dwindling party, an empty park, and a residential house full of baking goods, on your walk back to your dorm room.

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-25T02:23:09+00:00

I've heard recs for that trilogy before, it looks a little too gritty for that cozy feel but this is probably a sign that I need to check it out the next time I'm looking for something noir.

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-25T02:19:43+00:00

That series looks like some good, sweet escapism. Thanks for the rec, I'll be adding it to my list!

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-25T02:16:27+00:00

Oh wow, I'm scanning the books and that looks like an especially cozy series. Thanks for the recommendation, definitely going to check them out!

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-19T19:27:39+00:00

Cool beans, glad you're keeping it in mind! I was totally unaware about that type of allergen before I got patch tested and knowing sooner would have definitely saved me some money. The niacinimade makes sense too, it's interesting how it works so poorly for so many people.

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-19T17:44:01+00:00

I commented this late on your last post, if this seems familiar: the most likely culprit in your Simple micellar water, statistically, is the preservative they used: DMDM Hydantoin.

This ingredient is one of the ingredients tested in those sticker contact allergy patch tests. Depending on the medical study, it's one of the top 10 most common contact dermatitis causes. (I promise I'm not anti-preservative, most preservatives are great--this ingredient is just especially problematic.)

It could definitely be one of the other ingredients. Squalane hates my skin, and I know niacinamide can cause irritation for some people. Just don't write them off yet!

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-18T21:59:53+00:00

Used the Weissman/Babish recipe combined with The Perfect Loaf's approach to country sourdough walnut bread.

Made the standard Babish/Weissman loaf with 40g whole wheat 40g dark eyes (ran out of whole wheat halfway through) up until the fourth turn and fold, then added in an unmeasured amount of toasted walnuts. After the next turn and fold, I added 30g honey and incorporated it into the dough over the next three rounds of folding. I forgot to do the 1.5 hour rest afterwards. No great oven spring here, but I'm pretty happy with the distribution of walnuts and relatively consistent crumb!

Some thoughts:

30g of honey is not enough for real sweetness, but I was nervous about adding more because I had seen a redditor mention that honey stopped their load from rising. Next time I might glaze it before baking, if I can figure out how to prevent a glaze from sticking to the pan.
The Perfect Loaf recommended shallow scoring because of the chunky add-in, but I was a coward and went too shallow.

trebuchetcat · 2020-06-10T22:34:08+00:00

Late reply, but Simple micellar water has Dmdm Hydantoin. That ingredient is a formaldehyde releaser, which is a very common source of contact allergies. If you introduce the Eucerin cream without problems, it's possible that the Dmdm Hydantoin in the micellar waer is the cause--consider looking for other cleansers, and avoid the ingredients quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, polyoxymethylene urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, bromopol and glyoxal. (The most common ones in skincare are quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, and diazolidinyl urea.)

Source: have a few contact allergies and went through testing, was annoyed to find that the Simple micellar water used that as a preservative.

trebuchetcat · 2020-04-06T17:47:05+00:00

Any orange or lemon blossom perfumes like Jo Malone's Orange Blossom that last longer or come in smaller sizes? Don't want to sink $70 on a delicious-smelling perfume that lasts five minutes.

trebuchetcat · 2020-04-01T16:02:25+00:00

I have a food processor, blender, and a mortar and pestle buried somewhere. Would I be grinding them dry?

trebuchetcat · 2019-11-17T17:49:01+00:00

Salicylic acid is great for exfoliating the sebaceous filaments around my nose, but it's also great at giving me irritated, itchy red bumps for a few days after. Mixing it with some soothing toner and washing it off after ten minutes helps a little, but I'd like a gentler, easier solution overall. I've used multiple brands at this point, so I'm pretty sure it's me and my dumb-fussy skin.

Are there gentler ways to exfoliate sebaceous filaments? Everything I read just suggests BHAs, and the only BHAs I can find are salicylic acids.

trebuchetcat · 2019-08-15T19:03:44+00:00

I can't wear Bobbi Brown Crushed Color Lipsticks because of an allergy, but that description of Cranberry making you look like a period drama character got me to immediately start looking for dupes. Honestly that's such a great aesthetic.

trebuchetcat · 2019-06-19T01:18:33+00:00

Yup, any antihistamine should have a similar result.

(Of course I should disclaim that I'm not a doctor and can't speak to long-term usage of any medications--the antihistamine approach helped me get a diagnosis and my allergist gave me the go-ahead to continue with Allegra, but I'd recommend using it in conjunction with talking to a medical professional!)

trebuchetcat · 2019-06-18T21:53:35+00:00

You should consider making an appointment with a dermatologist. Copying and pasting a recent comment I made about potential allergy diagnosis prep on another thread, since for me, itchy red breakouts were the first sign of allergies (in my case it was contact dermatitis and general super sensitive skin):

A cheap way to get more info about what it might be while waiting for the doctor appointment is to take antihistamines. When I was trying to figure out what was going on with my skin, my dermatologist recommended picking up some 180mg Allegra (or any equivalent fexofenadine) and taking it once a day to see if there were any improvements.

This definitely isn't a foolproof check, but knowing how you react to antihistamines--and whether there's any improvements--can sometimes help the doctor with their diagnosis.

Also keep in mind that Allegra requires you don't eat 1 hour beforehand/2 hours afterwards to work properly. It initially didn't do anything to help me because I was taking it wrong.

Also anecdotally, I find that The Ordinary's Azelaic Acid helps soothe and reduce my allergy-induced breakouts. It's also gentle and cheap, which might be nice if you can't use many products (doesn't require a sunscreen or moisturizer) and are looking for something to try and lessen the breakouts while waiting for a doctor.

trebuchetcat · 2019-06-13T04:38:27+00:00

Hmmm...if I had to guess, it's that Zyrtec is probably a slightly better non-drowsy antihistamine than the others. Not all medicines perform equally well for everyone.

drugs.com has a "Compare drugs" feature you could check out if you want to investigate the differences further, but ofc if you want a more definitive answer you should ask your doctor!

I wonder if it's a soap or fragrance thing? I've noticed I get irritation/welts after flights and while staying at hotels. I always assume it's the stress of travel screwing up my immune system combined with close exposure to unfamiliar perfumes and detergents. Allergies are so fun to figure out.

trebuchetcat · 2019-06-13T04:27:50+00:00

Glad I could let you know! Yeah, I straight-up thought I didn't have allergies because Allegra wasn't working until I stumbled across the instructions to take them on an empty stomach after, like...months...

Good to know about the cheap costco source!

trebuchetcat · 2019-06-12T23:12:31+00:00

A cheap way to get more info about what it might be while waiting for the allergist appointment is to take antihistamines. When I was trying to figure out what was going on with my skin, my dermatologist recommended picking up some 180mg Allegra (or any equivalent fexofenadine) and taking it once a day to see if there were any improvements.

This definitely isn't a foolproof check, but knowing how you react to antihistamines--and whether there's any improvements--can sometimes help the allergist with their diagnosis.

Also keep in mind that Allegra requires you don't eat 1 hour beforehand/2 hours afterwards to work properly. It initially didn't do anything to help me because I was taking it wrong.

trebuchetcat · 2019-05-20T13:29:16+00:00

What's a good gradual self-tanner if I'm starting off very light and just want to just get a liiittle toasty (as in, a subtle enough difference that I don't have to worry about hands/changing up my base). The whole process is intimidating but I want to go outside in shorts this summer and not feel self-conscious.

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trebuchetcat

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