Pics, Petals & Scents - Pink Sugar Pound Cake

Scent Description: Self explanatory. A generic bakery cake scent mixed with our beloved Pink Sugar. Seriously, without PS I would have nothing to blend with.
Weight Melted: 3.0 oz. Yes, a lot. Have I mentioned how much I hate chopping up my own pies and loaves? Especially this one. More on that later.
Cold Sniff: 2/5 I couldn't really pick up on what I was smelling here. Something sweet, that was it. I didn't have high hopes when I put this in the warmer.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 Ah, there's my Pink Sugar. I wouldn't really call the cake I smelled pound cake, but it was definitely something cakey.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 4/5 This didn't reach some of the bedroom.
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 12 hours from this pretty significant chunk.
Repurchase: Ehh... probably not.
This wax is old. So old that this stuff is still labelled Pics, Petals & Scents. For those of you who don't know, this is the old name for Flaming Star Scents. Marcy underwent a rebranding.... two years ago, I think? This was one of several PPS pies and loaves I got in a destash. Even back then, two years ago, I remember thinking the wax was rather messy and super super soft. I needed gloves while handling this. Wax got all over my dough cutter, and my scale, and I didn't want to put this on my normal pretty pink heart design paper for the picture so I put it on a paper towel. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the scent and performance, but the wax really took away from the whole experience. On top of that I made the stupid mistake of just adding in this already formidable chunk of wax to some stuff that I'd left in the warmer. Yeah. That cleanup wasn't fun.

In other words, I disappeared from the internet world for a few weeks there because my sleeping schedule was messed up. I got the proper number of hours of sleep, but boy howdy did it do me no good. I'm a sun person, it kills me to be asleep when the sun is up. To my body it's all sorts of wrong to be asleep if the sun is up.
Also, I happen to've fallen for this new game that's on Steam Early Access. I know most of you guys aren't gamers like me, but this is my life and I'm gonna mention what's goin on, dangit! It's called Ark: Survival Evolved, and it's a really cool survival game with DINOSAURS! and other prehistoric creatures like mammoths and large ass birds called (in game, I don't know what they were in the real world) Argentavis, and my personal favorite, the large shark MEGALODON! M and I have been playing this quite a bit in our free time. We're taming these creatures (including the Rex and Spinosaur, buahaha) and building ourselves a dino army to take over the island! BUAHAHAHAHA.
Anyway, yeah. Sorry for the absence and here's your wax review! I'm melting again finally so you should be seeing more posts from me.

Tripping Over My Shoes Ep. 9: Rainy Day Thoughts, A Novel

We've had quite a bit of rainy weather here over the past week. I say week, but it's really been like this off and on for the past month and a half. We get an occasional sunny day, but more often than not it's overcast.
On Sunday I did some cardio for the first time in... a long time. I think it's been a month. I did not do well at all. In my defense, I had just chugged some coffee and eaten when M asked if I'd like to go to the clubhouse with him and work out. Initially I said no, but I ultimately decided just to go since it was better than sitting on my butt and doing nothing. As that silly inspirational poster says, I would still be lapping anyone sitting on the couch no matter how I did.
I couldn't really keep running for too long. Overall I hit 2 miles in 25 minutes. Ouch. I mean to go back and run one of these mornings. I need to remind M to wake me up before he leaves for PT so I can get up and run.
I haven't even been lifting as much in the past two weeks. I don't know if I reached a mental plateau or if I just let my thoughts get a hold of me, but I just... stopped. I continued eating well, but working out just kind of... fell aside. I realized that I'd stopped, so this week I've been hitting it especially hard, alongside keeping a closer eye on my food intake. I was eating right, but I noticed I was reaching for food when I wasn't necessarily hungry. Plus, I would grab way too big a serving for myself and end up feeling sick once I finished the plate. No bueno.
It's rather depressing putting on the same pants I wore for work not 6 months ago. I keep trying to remember if these pants fit so tightly. If I had such a muffin top going. At the same time I somehow think I look better when wearing certain things. There was a dress my parents bought me when they visited last April, to wear at M's graduation from basic. I remember sitting in the changing room back then and thinking I didn't like the little bit of pudge I could see in the stomach area. I no longer see stomach pudge when I wear the dress. Could that mean I've reduced that pudge? Or I've just added to it so it's a more even layer?
Ack, I think too much. I still feel better and am more happy when I look in the mirror. I just don't want to spend money on an entirely new wardrobe so I'm aiming trim down more in my thigh and butt area. That really seems to be my only problem area now. Wow, I'm babbling.

For the past two years I've kept a sort of audio diary of my life. While playing video games I would hook up my mic and load up Windows Sound Recorder and just talk about my life. The other day I put on a few of the recordings and just listened to them while cleaning. I came to realize that in the past year alone I've changed a lot. Even while talking to myself (that sounds crazy, heh), the one person I should be most comfortable with, I used to have such uncertainty in my voice. I was too passive.
Getting promoted to management at my previous job really helped me become more assertive and rethink a lot of stuff about how I interacted with people. I was able to find a balance between being friendly with others and not letting myself get taken advantage of. I started calling people out on inconsistencies in their stories/excuses, cut out people I was unhappy hanging around with, and in general just stopped caring what others thought of me. In doing so, I lost a few friends. I found that losing those said friends didn't really bother me.
Nowadays I wonder if I've gotten too unfriendly. Too uncaring. I worry I come off as too harsh and too, well, honest. I've always been a very cynical person. I was just good at hiding it. Nowadays I don't bother with being nice. In previous times I would always reach out a helping hand to those in need. Now I question said person's motives. Are they just asking for attention? What do they want out of me? It's not that I didn't worry about that before, I just never let it stop me from reaching out. Now it's somehow caused me to build up an even greater barrier around myself, and I'm so confused by it. I thought I hid behind barriers in my weakness before, but my 'strength' is yet another barrier between me and others.
Maybe I'm just reading too much into myself. Maybe the rain is just getting to me. I didn't mean for this to be such a downer, LOL. I would say I want to end this post on something happy, but I feel like that would just take away from my thoughts here. I'll just leave this post as is and work on a separate more happy post, shall I?

Order of the Odor: Volume 10

Welcome to the Order! We are so excited to bring you two new members to the Order: Michelle from Waxing About and Liz from Furianne! These ladies write awesome blog posts about smelly stuff and we are honored to have them join us. Please chime in on our question this month:

Have you had any wax ordering frustrations?

Several, unfortunately. I joined the wax world right before the big boom that caused a lot of vendors' TAT to increase drastically. So I remember buying Rosegirls before it would take almost a year to get their products, CFTKR when I could buy from them whenever I fancied, and SMT had been the only vendor that had projected a very long TAT after that fateful December sale that brought them an unprecedented number of orders.
On one hand, I'm all for waiting a little longer for good quality wax. I understand that a lot of these companies are just someone's hobby and is by no means their full time job. On the other hand, I feel like it has encouraged more and more vendors to let their TAT slip. It's horrible that we as customers have made it okay for companies to pull this stuff on us. It's not okay to wait that long for scented wax. If you have to take that long to make it, maybe you should rethink your business model. I've seen lots of companies go under because their open once or twice a year method did not work. I personally can't justify ordering from somewhere when I don't know whether the scents I'm ordering now will be in by the time I get them. I quite like how Glitterati is doing their stuff - if you get on the list, you don't have to pay up or decide what you want until it is your turn to put in your order. In my head that process completely offsets almost all of the downsides to other companies with obnoxiously long TATs.
Certain vendors have an almost cult following now, and it feels like if you say anything bad about x or y vendor you will get flamed. I decided never to order from a vendor that the other ladies here know and love because I saw the owner publicly call out someone who had a legitimate concern about her order. The customer was concerned about packaging, as every single one of her tart bags had arrived ripped. It wasn't the first time packaging had been an issue with this vendor, but the owner felt the need to call out this customer who had been nice enough to bring the issue to her in private. The pure unprofessional attitude I saw from the owner and how she fed off of her cult followers jumping onto the 'talk shit' train really discouraged me from buying. This was two years ago and I haven't looked back.
I guess this is the downside to people selling wax as a side job. You get a more personal feel to buying from and interacting with the vendor, but you lose a lot of that professionalism in doing so. The people running the business are human, but it behooves them not to act like complete asses in a public place when acting as their business.
'Wax frustrations' encompasses a lot of things. I think I covered some of the most frustrating things for me here without completely dropping all social decorum.

Deb hauled from a newer wax vendor and is quite impressed with their TAT, scents, throw and pricing. What new vendor has snared Deb's hard to capture attention? Come and find out, you will want to order too!

There is a vendor that Sunnee tries to never miss a sale from. Check out her most recent post showcasing just such a sale haul. Her gorgeous photos and blend picks are sure to create a lemming. 

Jamie Lauren Cupcakery and Confection in Wax (JLCCW), a old popular vendor who closed and is now slated to re-open (for the second time- fingers crossed!) has a reputation for cute and strong throwing wax creations. Liz was one of the lucky old crew that hauled a nice order before JLCCW closed and is reviewing some. Check out how JLCCW wax is faring years later.

Mystery tarts, custom brittle and scent shots that have lightening fast TAT are all great things but when the brittle is Pink Peppermint you KNOW that is the cherry on top. And you probably know who hauled it.... Lauren! Haul posts are rare gems from her, so make sure not to miss this one!

Lasting Scent Candles announced they are closing, but will still be selling off their stock on their website with announcements on Facebook, until they run out. Julie shares her recent LSC haul with wishes we can all grab some last stragglers before they are gone forever.

Plum Wine Sandalwood, Jasmine Vanilla Green Tea Peach, and M'Lady's Boudoir fragrances... can you guess what vendor these unusual and innovative blends hails from? Michelle shares her recent haul that includes these cool scents, great photos and ordering information.  

Candles From the Keeping Room - Apricot & Honey

Scent Description: "Gently sweet and deliciously fruity, this scent is a  blend of peachy apricot and sunny citrus with notes of pollinated jasmine, lily of the valley, and gardenia, creamy vanilla, and sweet, dripping honey. Pleasantly sweet without being sickly sweet because the apricot and honey balance one another." I do get a flowery note from this. It's nice and sweet with just a hint of flowers, but I wouldn't call this a flowery scent.
Weight Melted: 1.1 oz.
Cold Sniff: 4/5
Warm Sniff: 4/5 This is one of those what you smell on cold is what you get warmed. I still enjoyed it.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 4/5 I couldn't quite smell this in the bedroom.
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 12 hours from this.
Repurchase: As nice as this was, probably not. On cold sniff I thought the scent was going to be a lot stronger than it actually was. I wanted that strong honey and flower type scent. Instead I mainly got a vague sweet flower scent just because the scent itself was so light. It threw nicely and performed well, but in this case the scent strength was really dead.