Ophelia's Apothecary January 2014 Review

Man, I hate to do this. This is not going to be a good review. I don't like writing bad reviews. But after a late delivery of December's Ophelia's Apothecary bag (a good bag, just didn't arrive till January), I was hoping January would make up for it by being just as good in contents, only on time. Alas, January was not good.

The bag. So far, so good.

Upon opening up the bag, I found a note, basically explaining that January was sort of a "grab bag" month, where it appeared the owner just unloaded stuff she needed to unload. I guess it was all already made, so she didn't have to worry about getting them out late at least.

Note and coupon

Dumping everything out, I saw that I got 2 small sample pots - 1 of Green Tea Cucumber Face Cream, which I believe is new to me, so I'm happy to try, and 1 of Lemony Meringue Hand Cream, which now makes my 3rd tiny pot of this, the last of which I got in last month's bag only 2 weeks ago! I suppose I could combine all 3 pots into a bigger jar and call it a day, but I'm bummed to get the same exact product in the same exact scent in 3 separate months, 2 of which were in a row! Especially when I've seen a linen spray go out in 2 other months that I didn't happen to get those months (I got something else both times). I really want to try that linen spray and the one time on Facebook I asked about whether a coupon could be used on it and where I could buy it since I couldn't find it on her site, she just liked my comment and didn't answer. Anyway, moving on.

My 3rd sample of Lemony Meringue Hand Cream and a sample of Green Tea Cucumber Face Cream

My last set of items was 11 baggies of eye shadows, 3 grams each. Normally, this would be AWESOME! That amount of shadow in a regular indie store (albeit packaged in jars, not bags) would cost probably at least $50! However. Looking at this shadow, it's clear it wasn't mixed well. I'm not sure what the ingredients are because they're not listed on the bag (a big no no - it's apparently illegal to sell mineral eye shadow without listing the ingredients on the product or with the product), but I can clearly see pigment and some random white powder ingredient just floating around. Trying to mix it into a few bags left the bag surface pure white, which makes me think that's all it will do on my eyes as well. I'm not even going to swatch these. I'll probably just throw them out. I don't know what the white stuff is. She's very particular about what she puts in her bath products, so I'm reasonably confident it's nothing dangerous, but the whole thing just turns me off. Besides, I have a huge collection of awesome, well made mineral eye shadow. I don't need to bother with subpar mineral eyeshadow. She mentioned that she was discontinuing her mineral makeup because it was too much work, so good. Focus on what you're good at.

Mineral eye shadows - the ones that appear whitish are the ones I tried to mix and you can see the white particles in some of the others.

So, next month is my last month on this current 3 month sub. If it's not impressive and filled with the stuff she does well, I'm cancelling. This month was just super disappointing. I really hope next month is better. I normally like her stuff a lot, which is why I was so bummed with this bag.

If you want to look into her subscription, go to her website. It usually is better. If you get this box already, let me know if you got different things this month.

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own.)