Hey friends!

How’s your weekend been?

For the first time in my life, I was treated to a viewing of The Room. Written, directed, produced, released by (and starring!) Tommy Wiseau. Wow. I am pretty much an expert in bad movies, and this might be the worst movie I have ever seen. I loved it so much. If you have seen this horrific film, please share your experience with me in the comments!

Anyway. The Phantasmagoria Box. 

Ok. So this technically is not a subscription. It’s more of mystery box that Ten Three Labs will be releasing every few months or so. BUT. You could pretend subscribe? Like tell yourself, I’m going to buy this every quarter, I am subscribed to buying this.

Yeah, I’m stretching it here. But I really wanted to share this little Mystery Box with you today, so let’s just go with it.

Technical Stuff:
Ten Three Labs is an indie company based out of Tennessee that creates perfumes, eye shadows, salve sticks and smudge sticks. I’ve reviewed her Project Leda Collection before which you can find here. 

The Phantasmagoria Projections are her new mystery boxes that will all be inspired by a ghost story. For this first box there was a sneak peak to see what kind of products would come with it, though not their actual descriptions. I believe she will continue sneak peaks so you can see if you are interested in the content of the box before it goes live.

The box itself cost $35 with shipping. Shipping was delayed a bit because of the weather, but Cara, the owner of Ten Three Labs, was very transparent about all of this on her Facebook page, so I was never concerned. I purchased this on Feb. 6th and it was shipped March 5th. It arrived at my house on March 9th.

The next Phantasmagoria box will be out in June, but she hasn’t set an exact release date. There were only 50 of this first box available, so if you really want it you may have to stalk the website.

The good stuff!
When I heard this box was coming out, I decided to order it because I thought it would be a good introduction to Ten Three Labs. I would get to try a variety of products for $35, including shipping, which I thought was a good value. So let’s dig in:

Hello little ghost box!

Inside the little ghost box.

And the goods all spread out.

The info sheet

So the theme of this box was The Purple Lady of Salt Lake City, a ghost story about an ill-fated argument between a couple at a train station. Very creepy. But thankfully the artwork was more beautifully haunting instead of utterly terrifying like an Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories book. (I wasn’t sure what to expect and I’m a ghost story chicken, so I’m very pleased with the lovely illustrations).

Eye Shadows- This box came with three eye shadows.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo ($6, full size)-Dark violet with a violet glow, plus gold and green sparks.

Ten Three Labs does not play when she says full sized. All three of these shadows were packed to the lid! And this one is probably my favorite of the bunch. It’s a very dark purple, almost black, with gold and green glitter. It’s a really cool color and I think it will make a gorgeous eyeliner or smokey eye.

Mezzanine Echo ($6, Full size)-Lilac with pinky brown sparks
A pale pink-orchid color with a mostly matte finish and just the tiniest hint of shimmer. I don’t really have a shadow like this yet, and it applied very smooth and evenly. On my lid, it’s more of a soft purple matte, and it seems like it will be a great Spring color.

Rio Grande Western ($6, full size)–Vintage beige with pinky brown sparks
This leans a little yellow-beige on my skin, but it’s a nice neutral color. Again, I don’t really have anything like this shade. My current beiges lean a bit more brown/white, so this is will be a nice change. I wear a lot of warm colors, and I also think this is an awesome brow bone color to go with those.

Blush: Lovestruck by Baroque Cosmetics,( half size, $6)–A gorgeous neutral violet

 I’ve never tried Baroque Cosmetics, so it was nice to see them featured here. The blush is a muted purple, I bet this color will look gorgeous on someone with a bit darker skin, but on me it definitely looks like a bruise. It’s a fairly muted violet though, so I think it could be a lovely color for other people.

Saucebox Sheen in Lover’s Spat, (full size, $8.50).-Dusty rose with violet, gold, and pink glow.

This made me look like a ghost. It’s like all dust, some rose. Maybe a more adventurous lady who likes funky lipstick colors could pull this off, but I’m an old who works in a professional setting. There can be no white lipstick for me.

Face Look: I absolutely hate taking pictures of my face, but I love sharing looks, so here we go, a date night FOTD!

I used Mezzanine Echo on the my lid, Rio Grande Western on my brow bone, and I foiled Gloria in excelsis Deo into an eyeliner. I used a bit of Candied Violet from the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette to darken the outer corner just a bit and Semi-Sweet to darken the crease. Everything is over Urban Decay Primer Potion.

I tried to use Lovestruck on my cheeks, but it definitely looked like I had a bruise, even with just a light layer. I blended it out and topped it with Hello Waffle’s Junebug instead, but there’s still a faint purple. And for the lips, I didn’t even try, I just used NYX Rags to Riches.

 

 

Close up of of the my inability to use eyeliner, but overall, I like the way Mezzanine Echo looked on my lid, it was a good date night color.

Salve Stick in Great Salt Lick, ($4, full size).– Salted caramel

I have a Ten Three Lab Salve Stick from the Project Leda Collection, and I love it. I’ve compared it to the Rainbow Honey Lip Balms and the Notoriously Morbid Coffin Kissers, and I like the Salve Sticks the best. They just seem to be more moisturizing. Like the minute it hits my lips, it just melts into the softest lip balm. I love it. Salted Caramel smells amazing, like delicious burnt sugar, (oh, right), and I’m happy to have another Salve Stick in my collection. It lives right by my bed and I put it on before I go to sleep.

Scents:What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted,  ($7, 5/8 dram deluxe sample)- A soggy bouquet of forget-me-nots and violets left out in the rain, sweetened with pomegranate, white grapefruit, may chang, and benzoin absolute.

The first smell I get is a big burst of fizzy citrus. It kinda reminds me of a candy from my childhood, like a Sour Straw. The citrus pop mellows out and a soft floral note shows up in the background, and it gets more prominent the longer I wear the perfume. It finally all comes together as wet flowers, with a citrus kick. A really interesting perfume and I liked all the layers, I kept sniffing my wrist as it changed.

Train Delay ($7, 5/8 dram deluxe sample)-A hot cup of Arabic coffee, a nice pipe, some mechanical notes, train smoke, and maybe a bit of blood on the tracks.
I get the coffee note first, and it’s a pretty good one. But then something a bit sharp shows up, I’m thinking that’s the metal scent, and a bit of smoke. It comes together as a warm, slightly sinister coffee perfume. I like it, it fades pretty quickly on me, but that’s probably alright. My coworkers probably don’t need a blast of sinister coffee in the morning. (I DO.)

Overall: This is a really fun way to get acquainted with Ten Three Labs. For $35 you get to sample a little bit of everything she does, and it comes with a creepy theme! I definitely had fun trying out everything, and getting a better feel for Ten Three Labs as a company. I think my favorite parts of the box were the eye shadows and the salve stick. While I enjoyed the perfumes, neither scent was a love for me, but they were nice. The lipgloss and blush aren’t my favorite colors, but I can probably pass them on to a good home.

So all in all, I do hope to get the next box. Budgetary reasons might be the only thing that holds me back, but we’ll see what happens when the next release date is set.

That’s it for me today, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love,

Rebs

Questions of the Day:
-What did you think of the the first Phantasmagoria Box?
-Have you ever tried Ten Three Labs?
-Have you seen The Room? Tell me about your experience!