Site update - Infos pour le site web

The website is steadily coming along. I have a few days of work left on product cataloguing and photography. But I'm very excited by the prospect of going live towards the end of next week, quite probably.

I also just got a preview of what Arcana has planned for the Early Autumn release and it sounds delicious! Definitely original, but still very much in the spirit of classic Arcana.

Le site Web achève! J'ai encore quelques jours de travail pour cataloguer et photographier certains produits. Mais je pense être prête pour la fin de la semaine prochaine.

J'ai également vu ce que Arcana a prévu pour la collection de "Early Autumn" et cela semble délicieux ! Original, mais toujours dans l'esprit des Arcana classiques.

Nubar - Indigo Illusion

Nubar has the most splendid duochrome nail polishes, many of which are still part of the general catalogue. One of the absolute best is Indigo Illusion. It is also, unfortunately, discontinued - though I still hold out hope for its eventual re-release. As it is, I cherish my lone little bottle.

Indigo Illusion is the most hypnotically beautiful violet-grey-green-teal shade I've ever seen. It's the perfect color for a Pisces like me, all mutable seascapes. It's also a PITA to photograph. These pictures are the best I could come up with, and they STILL don't capture the complexity.

In the full daylight, you can see the beautifully shimmery violet flash.

Still in daylight, but at an angle where you can see the teal base, without the flash.

Miraculously, you can actually see all the duochrome transition in this picture - from golden-green to violet.

In indirect light, it looks almost like a greyish purple, but you can see the green at the edges.

So complex and gorgeous. Please Nubar, bring this back.

A little bit of history - also, website!

Some exciting (I hope!) stuff coming soon.

I've been involved in the online beauty world for several years now - both as an avid consumer and occasional hobbyist (a brief and dubious run of soap-making). I discovered artists and brands that I knew nothing about 5 years ago, and had the pleasure of becoming friends with some of these artisans and entrepreneurs, while also having the equal delight of seeing friends become business-owners and creators in their own right.

Some time ago I thought about putting together a little online boutique for the things I was most passionate about. As a concept, it struck me as a little bit presumptuous - I mean, can I really base a store around just the things I like? But then again, that's the beauty of an online store - it really can be whatever you want it to be, indentity-wise. Why not a carefully audited selection of things that really resonate with me, and will hopefully appeal to other people? At the very least whoever buys from me will know that I'm not just pandering - if I sell it, it's because I love it.

I put together this blog (on a different site originally) a few months back, pulling out from my old review blog just the things that made me truly excited. That gave me a solid base to start with - these are the brands, I realized, I would be happy to enable people to. So this blog will continue in that vein. It will feature what I'm personally 100% into, whether it winds up as something in the shop or not.

Speaking of shop - it's almost ready! The final design is done, and now I'm just adding the product listings. Soon, very soon. =)

Elements and Artifacts - Custom Order

I just received my first custom order from Elements and Artifacts - a variation on a necklace the artist had made just recently. I lusted after the original necklace deeply. Not only was the focal piece absolutely breath-taking, but the metal-work was exactly what I prefer in jewelry - elegant, feminine, yet steeped in naturalistic themes. I asked her if she could recreate something similar, and Alicia was more than accommodating, giving me a choice between three different focus stones and displaying far more patience than required when I waffled endlessly. The end result is even more beautiful than expected. The necklace arrived quickly once it was completed (which itself did not take long at all, and, like I said, depended far more on my hemming and hawing than anything else), and came in a lovely package.

I can't even explain the magic of labradorite. It's a stone that has these amazing layers, almost translucent, and flashes different colors depending on how the light hits it, and what is behind the stone itself.

Observe the riot of mutable, Piscean greens and blues, and foamy white and radiant gold, shot through with smoky veins. It is gorgeous - a wild, oceanic beauty framed by the earthier tones and graceful styling of the metal.

It is pure awesomeness.