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Espionage Cosmetics Nexus – December 2016

By Sheetar 22 November 2016 22 November 2016

Another round of the Espionage Cosmetics Nexus has arrived! They get here a little ahead of the month, so this is for December’s theme, “Twisted Holiday,” with two nail wraps to fit the theme! I expected probably something with string lights based on the theme image, but like always, had no idea where they might take the theme!

Holiday Lights – A glossy nail wrap with a glow in the dark accent that is hinted at in the subtitle, “When Phoning Home Can’t Do The Job.” It’s a pretty clever way to incorporate Stranger Things into a holiday theme, and the nerd value here is subtle, but will no doubt be super popular.
Patron Spirit of Halloween – This is a glossy nail wrap with black and white stripes that are reminiscent of Jack Skellington’s tuxedo. I honestly really dig the simplicity of these and Nightmare Before Christmas is a favorite, so it’s going to make voting super difficult this month!

I have to admit that I’m still undecided! While I love Holiday Lights, I have a soft spot for Patron Spirit of Halloween and really love those classy but still spooky pinstripes. Both nail wraps fit the theme perfectly! The nail wraps each cost $10 on the Espionage Cosmetics website, so the value exceeds the $15 month-to-month subscription cost. Voting has started, so if you’re a subscriber, go and vote now (if you can choose a favorite!). Public voting usually opens in a week or two, so keep an eye on the Espionage Cosmetics Twitter for details! The winner goes on to fame and glory for sale to the public once voting has ended, and the loser remains a Nexus exclusive. In case you’re thinking about subscribing and want to send me some love, hit up my referral link!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 345-c

By Sheetar 20 November 2016 20 November 2016

For the third week of the, “War and Peace,” theme, we have a photo of a friend of my mother’s family, Robert James Zupon. He was born 20 March 1928 in PA and passed away on 2 December 2009 also in PA. My mom remembers the name though we had a bit of a time figuring out who the face belonged to! Once we finally got a name, the pieces fell into place. I didn’t find out much about his military career other than a Veterans Burial Card that noted he was in the Army during the Korean War, but here we have a photo of him in his uniform with a big smile on his face. Even though he’s not related by blood, he was enough a part of the lives of my ancestors that they saved a photo of him.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 345-b

By Sheetar 12 November 2016 11 November 2016

Another week of our Sepia Saturday theme, “War and Peace,” and for this week, I have a photo of my grandfather, John Rachocki. John served in the Army Air Force from 21 July 1941 through 13 Dec 1945 during World War II. Based on another photo with the same border, I believe this was taken in Texas during training on the early end of his service. Much like last week’s photo, there are barracks with a wooden walkway between them and while it’s a different branch of service and a different war, it still looks somewhat similar though there’s no laundry line in the background, just a large hangar or warehouse of some sort. There’s no label on the back, but I’m fairly sure of my assumptions of time and place given that there’s a similar photo in the bunch. We don’t have all that many photos of grandpa John and seeing him in uniform is a real treat!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 345-a

By Sheetar 10 November 2016 11 November 2016

A new Sepia Saturday theme awaits us for November, “War and Peace.” I have a number of photos of family members who served in the military and fortunately there are still a few I haven’t used yet! For this week, belated as is my style anymore, we have a stereogram photo of Earl William Powis Sr, born 15 October 1896 in Pennsylvania, died 26 Mar 1973 in Florida. Earl was my great grandmother’s brother, and he served in the Navy during World War I from 14 May 1917 through 21 August 1919. In a rare event, we actually have a fully labelled photo with some great detail, so I included the back this time to show you. The back reads, “Baking, September the 5, 1917, Phila Navy Yards.” The internet has a good archive of weather data, so I was able to find out it was 82F that day which is indeed pretty warm (Wunderground link). Phila Navy Yards of course refers to the Philadelphia Navy Yard which is now mostly no longer in use by the Navy. They still have a small presence, but the majority of the land was taken back by the city of Philadelphia.

The photo itself is pretty neat since it’s a stereogram image, the only one I have in all the family photos. You should be able to cross your eyes and see a 3D image appear between the two! I have to imagine either the Navy took this or a fellow sailor with a stereo type camera snapped the photo. The background shows lines of barracks with a wooden walkway and other sailors doing various work in the background as well as some laundry hanging on a line stretched between buildings. At this point in time, Earl had only been in the Navy for just shy of 4 months, so this may have been basic training still. Earl has a slight smile on his face, and it’s so neat to have such a nice, candid sort of photo from a rather early point in photographic time!

Subscription Boxes

Lip Monthly October 2016

By Sheetar 7 November 2016 7 November 2016

I’m a little late posting this, but October’s Lip Monthly arrived October 25th. There was a snafu with their new system and it sent out blank tracking numbers at first which they later corrected, but this usually arrives earlier in the month and there was no communication about the delay. On top of that, while they were transitioning websites, I knew my subscription was going to auto-renew in October, but I was unable to log into their website during the transition. Luckily, my card couldn’t be charged since it had expired, but even when I was finally able to log in, the site wouldn’t let me cancel – it just kept coming up with “error” when I hit cancel. I emailed customer service who was able to cancel the subscription, but I feel like it’s a little unsettling that the company went through and tried to renew my account when I couldn’t log in and their site wasn’t working, but couldn’t be bothered to contact me in advance to let me know to email customer service. The whole subscription has been a comedy of errors and bad products and I couldn’t even imagine renewing at this point. So, here’s my last bag.

Laritzy Lip Pencil – 1 stick / $18 – (Product is Full Size) The color received is, “Roseberry,” which is a pinkish nude. I guess this can work either as a lip liner pencil or as an all-over stick since the formula is surprisingly creamy and smooth for a lip liner. I actually like the color which I didn’t expect looking at the name – anything dusty rose never works for me, but this tips enough over to berry to actually be rather flattering! Bonus, this product is cruelty free and paraben free.
Cargo Essential Lip Gloss – .08 oz / $16 – (Product is Full Size) The color received is, “Sahara,” which is a gold glitter lip gloss. The formula isn’t bad for a gloss – it’s on the thinner side and doesn’t feel that sticky. There’s no discernible scent or flavor either, and the glitter is subtle enough so that I don’t look like I’m 12. It actually goes really well over the lip pencil!
Be a Bombshell Lipstick – 3.8 g / $6 – (Product is Full Size) The color received is, “Charmed,” which is a warm toned brown. This arrived with a big fingerprint smear of the product on the outside of the tube. As for the inside, the lipstick had separated from the base and was stuck inside the cap. I eventually got it back out of the cap, but it’s basically a damaged product that looks like it was opened before which is pretty gross. And, brown is apparently a pretty awful color on me, plus the product contains parabens, so this is an automatic nope for me.
Dirty Little Secret Baked Highlighter – 3 g / $14 – (Product is Full Size) The color received is, “Sunkist,” which is a warm gold color. I honestly thought this was an eyeshadow at first since the color is way too dark to be a highlighter and is probably more suited to be a bronzer on my skin tone. Even if it doesn’t really work as a highlighter, it’ll be great as a gold eyeshadow, so that’s fine for me!

The total value comes to $54 which is great considering I paid just under $10 per month for this subscription. It’s neat to see cruelty free brands included this time and I do like the Laritzy pencil, DLS highlighter, and Cargo gloss a lot which makes this a pretty decent bag. My first shipment was still better, but this is a far cry better than the prior shipment. I definitely won’t be renewing and while this was fun, the customer service and transparency just isn’t there with this company, and I’d rather spend my money with a company that communicates better and doesn’t try to renew my subscription when I can’t even log into their site to cancel.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 344-e

By Sheetar 29 October 2016 29 October 2016

For our final week of the Sepia Saturday theme, “From Here to There,” I dug out my photos of the Miller Twins. These two boys were featured in a few photos labelled only as, “Miller Twins,” on the back and I figured that twin boys would be easy enough to find without knowing their first names or much other information about them! I assumed my great grandma Olga Powis lived near them and I assumed they’d be on the 1920 or 1930 census for a place to start. The batch of photos that look like this (size/shape/quality) are dated around then, so it gave me a good guessing range. Sure enough, I found an entry for twin boys Charles and William Miller who were born in 1918 on the 1930 census (ancestry.com link), sons of Merl Miller and Euphamie Lamb. Euphamie shows up in another photo (link to blog post) with her boys which is what helped wrap the whole thing up to what I feel is a fairly positive identification.

As far as a date for the photos, I assume they’re about 4 or 5 in the set of photos here, so we’re talking 1923 (+-2 years). The twins were born on March 14th 1918 in Coalport, Pennsylvania. William died 11 June 1944 while fighting in WWII and was buried in France, and Charles on 19 Feb 1998 in Pennsylvania. According to the 1920 census, they lived a matter of a few blocks from my great grandmother. By the 1930 census, they had moved about an hour away to Blacklick in Cambria County. To tie it into the theme, one of the photos shows the boys perched on the running board of a car. Together though, even though they’re not related, these photos are a sweet little snapshot into the lives of these twins and the details are wonderful – the matching shirts and pocket watches, the beloved pet dog, the wash on the line behind the boys, the car! I do hope to find some descendant or someone in the family line who might be interested in these, and I’m glad to have the chance to share them here. Looking forward to November’s new theme!

Subscription Boxes

Medusa’s Makeup October 2016

By Sheetar 25 October 2016 25 October 2016

This is my second shipment for Medusa’s Makeup monthly subscription. The shipment arrived in a metallic purple bubble mailer and everything inside is cruelty-free with most items being vegan as well. The packaging is minimal which is great since it’s less waste/recycling to get rid of. I’m all for keeping it simple when it comes to packaging/shipping. This arrived on October 22nd, but I’m just getting around to posting about it today. It looks like the shipment is processed on the anniversary date of your sign up, so if you signed up the 5th of the month, it’ll process and ship then, but if you were later in the month like me, you’re one of the last shipments going out. I guess that makes it easier on them for shipping so there’s not one HUGE massive push to get everything out at once, but it is a little bit of a bummer since you see everyone else getting their shipments before you. Not a big deal though since I’m a spoiler junkie and usually find out what I’m getting before it arrives anyway!

Deluxe False Eyelashes – 1 set / $8 – (Full Size Product) I saw these I think in an email and was hoping they’d make it into this shipment, and they have! It’s a fairly reasonable length for false lashes and I like that the length of the individual lashes is varied so they look a little bit more natural and blend into your own lashes. I’m going to have to find a reason to give these a try!
Lipstick – 3.5 g / $12 – (Full Size Product) The color is, “Red Square,” and is a bright fuchsia-strawberry red. The product goes on velvety smooth and is a wonderful vegan formula. The color comes out a bright fuchsia pink on me and might be a hair brighter than what I’d pick out for myself, but this gives me a chance to try something outside of my comfort zone.
Cosmetic Glitter – 3 g / $7 – (Full Size Product) The color is, “Abracadabra,” and is a black glitter which makes it perfect for use as a glitter eyeliner! It would probably go with the eyelashes really well for a little extra sparkle.
The Fix Glitter Adhesive – 2 g / $8 – (Full Size Product) Well if you’re including glitter, you have to include an adhesive, right? It’s a natural wax that makes the glitter stick to your skin and stay put.

The total value comes to $35 which well covers the cost of $15.95 per month. I love that there’s a mix of makeup and practical stuff like the glitter adhesive, so it’s giving me more than just fun makeup to play with but also good base items to have on hand, plus they complement the other items included and work well as a shipment together. Looking forward to November’s shipment!

Subscription Boxes

Espionage Cosmetics Nexus – November 2016

By Sheetar 24 October 2016 24 October 2016

November’s Nexus shipment arrived on October 21st and had two nail wraps that fit into the theme, “Gemology.” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as usual, but I assumed it would be something along the lines of the super popular Turquoise from the June BOOM!Box. One of the wraps definitely is and the other has the unique EC nerdy twist! On to the contents!

Amethyst – This is a gorgeous glitter print of that lovely purple gemstone, Amethyst. I have to admit this is easily my favorite of the two. My maternal grandmother’s birth stone was amethyst, and I remember her talking about it when I was younger, so there’s some sentimental value attached to this wrap as well. Plus, it’s sparkly and purple and a little abstract which is just perfect.
Rebel Rose – Okay, so here’s where I turn in my nerd card because at first, I completely missed the reference and wondered why there were roses in a gemology theme. After I Googled it, I found it’s for the cartoon, Steven Universe, and is a nod to the character Rose Quartz! Quick video here if you’re as unfamiliar with that cartoon as I am – and hey, EC just expanded my horizons a little today, and that clip is really uplifting and beautiful. Anyway, pink is not my thing, so I’m going to share the love and pass these off to someone who will appreciate the rosy pink, silver foil, glow-in-the-dark nail wraps since they really are lovely, just not a good fit for me.

As usual, the theme is totally on point (even if I missed the Rebel Rose reference at first!), and both wraps are gorgeous, but Amethyst is the easy choice for me this month. The nail wraps each cost $10 on the Espionage Cosmetics website, so the value exceeds the $15 month-to-month subscription cost. The voting is already underway, and the winner will go on to fame and fortune for sale to the public once voting has finished while the loser will be a special Nexus exclusive. In case you’re thinking about subscribing and want to send me some love, hit up my referral link!

OH! Did your favorite not make the cut? You can still grab extras! As a Nexus subscriber you can purchase past ‘losers’ through the EC website. Check out their blog here with links to each month’s nail wraps including past losers while supplies last!