"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued,
is always just beyond your grasp, but which,
if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Every year, here in Hilton Head, we experience a massive butterfly migration, as thousands of butterflies pass through our area on the way to warmer climates. It is an amazing sight to see every day in your front yard! We plant Lantana (Butterfly Bush) to attract them with it's sweet citrusy fragrance. With each day of our butterfly hunts since August, I have seen more and more butterflies. Soon, the migration will peak. What better time to release this collection?
Butterflies are iconic. As women, I think that we relate to butterflies in terms of their metamorphosis, as a rebirth. We are constantly growing and changing and giving new life- whether to our children, or ourselves. Butterflies are beautiful and magical- thoughts of freedom, happiness and fertility all come to mind when we ponder the butterfly. Butterflies are resplendent in mythology and folklore, as the very essence of a human soul, having taken flight.
This collection is also very special in that it is the first time that I have had the pleasure of working on a collection with my son, Connor- who is a budding young artist. He has been very interested in the butterfly imagery that he's seen on Mommy's laptop, and last year he "grew" his own butterflies from caterpillars in a butterfly tent that we ordered online. We set them free in the front yard during last year's migration. Connor named the butterflies "Sammy", and every day when we see them in the garden, he is still convinced that it is his group of "Sammy" butterflies, come back home to visit. Here's a post from my blog with more details and pictures about how Connor helped with this collection.
Another interesting fact? Aromaleigh is apparently in sync with the cosmos. On September 10, my birthday- the Hubble telescope delivered us gorgeous images of the "Butterfly Nebula", NGC 6302. Interestingly, the nebula is found in Scorpius, which is my rising sign. Hmmm...
I think that all of these perfect circumstances have all meshed together to bring us an amazing new collection... Les Papillons! I hope that you enjoy this collection as much as I have truly enjoyed creating it. I used a lot of different techniques and combinations of ingredients in formulating these shades. They are extremely pigmented and extremely dimensional with varying layers of color effects in the form of texture, highlight, sparkle, shimmer, interference, highlights and lowlights.
Made in the USA by Aromaleigh Inc.
Les Papillons retired 12/31/09 and after much debate, I decided it was not a Limited Edition collection that I could cut any colors from. Every shade is one that I adore! On 4/19, with many emails inquiring about the status of the collection, I re-enabled ordering of the collection. I regret that in my haste I did not update this page to reflect formulation changes in the collection (which up until today (6/4) still announced that the collection was retiring on 12/31!~)
Ingredients (Les Papillons permanent collection formula : Contains: Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide (CI 7786) May contain: Ferric Oxide (CI 77491), Ferric Ferrocyanide (CI 77510), Chromium Oxide Green (CI 77288), hydrated chromium oxide (CI 77289), (CI 77007), Manganese Violet(CI 77742), Bronze/Copper/Aluminum Powder, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Red 40, Carmine (Les Papillons shipped since the collection was announced as permanent on 4/19/09 contain these ingredients)
Size: "Les Papillons" Eyes are packaged in clear jars with sifter, 1.2 gm net wt jars, the same size as our other Rocks! eyeshadows, Elemental Lustres and Pure Hues (aka "5 gram jars"). These shadows are specially labeled with distinctive "Les Papillons" labels. There was a delay in making Les Papillons permanent due to reformulation efforts to decrease the number of colors containing dyes. We have successfully reduced the number of shades that contain dyes substantially, while maintaining extremely close color and texture matches.
NOTE: While we have made all attempts for photographs to accurately depict colors, photography unfortunately does not accurately reveal the depth and interplay of color and effect of these shadows. Also, please note that variations do exist between different computer monitors.
Color Descriptions (Color is subjective and I may see things differently than you... because of this, samples are recommended, as these descriptions are my personal observations...) A few Les Papillons shades contain FD&C dyes. These are marked with an asterisk "*". 3 colors contain Carmine. These are marked with an asterisk "C".
Flying Flower: A joyful cool frosted pink with soft violet highlight and sparkles of copper. Silvery metallic heart. (C)
Morphing Moon: My favorite teal shade to date. Smooth and faceted with rich dimension and shimmer, like the scales of a butterfly's wings. (*)
Earthly Delights: Silvery taupes morph with earthen greys, reflecting soft sparkles of blue, coral and gold. Metallic.
Glowing Luna: A pigmented warm green yellow... or yellowish warm green? You choose. Sparks of copper and pink add an ethereal dimension.
Dormant Dream: A dramatic and vivid fuschia purple with a metallic heart and pearl frost finish.
Ephemeral Violet: A cool frosted metallic purple with strong finish and sparks of copper flash.
Air & Light: A silvery white with highlights and sparks of every shade of the rainbow. Full of delightful dimension and interference shimmer, this shade passes into the ether.
Flutura's Cloud: A brilliant blue of exceptional vibrancy and depth. Metallic heart with intense blue frost and sparks of blue, red and gold. This shade was inspired by the amazing color of the Blue Morpho Butterfly.
Fragile Charms: a muted mauved purple with fuschia and burgundy undertones. Slight blue highlight, silvery metallic smoothness and brilliant diamond glints. (C)
Zephyr's Breeze: A brilliant warm green, rich with pearls and silver, and sparkles of yellow radiating pink flashes of light.
Spread your Wings: The gentle earthy orange of the Monarch Butterfly, but rich with metallic splendor, vivid color and sparks of pure silver. (*)
Golden Chrysalis: A truly unique muted organic gold with amazing dimensional spirit. Shimmer of golden red lustrous metallic honeyed gold and sparks of violet interplay.
Thalia's Return: A deep and vivid warm chestnut metallic brown with sparkles of wine, coral and gold.(*)
Soul Takes Flight: A deep smokey grey/black frosted base with wine undertones, brilliantly offset with sparks of aqua, pink and violet.
Emergent Beauty: The deepest pearlescent mauved burgundy with smoke tones, deep metallic red and sparkles of russet and aqua.
Butterfly Kisses: Sweetest cool silvery frosted pink with lavender tones, golden highlights and brilliant sparks of aqua.
Flutter-by: A vivid pink/coral/red with metallic texture and sparkles of delicate earthy green.(*)(C)
Vigil of Change: Intense deep cool purple with smokey metallic undertones and golden highlights with pink sparkles.
Winged Psyche: A green rich with dimension and lustrous metallic finish. Tinges of blue and shimmering flashes of pale blue make this anything but ordinary. Inspired by the rarest green butterflies.
Crimson Mimicry: Rich frosted metallic smooth true red with sparks of coral, red and gold shining in the sunlight. (* )