A Bevy of Brooches, Part 2

Broochstravaganza 2K16 marches on with its second installment, as I share the next third or so of my collection, and my experiences shopping with Femme De Bloom, Luxulite, the Oblong Box Shop, and Pin Em Up Designs.

Brooches of the day.

Femme De Bloom

Order #1

Order #2

Super adorable packaging!

I've written about Femme De Bloom before, so regular readers will know exactly how much I love all her designs. Femme De Bloom never ceases to amaze me: she's a full-time doctoral student who also runs her own successful handmade-jewelry business! Her Etsy shop is full of lovely Disney-themed earrings, brooches, and necklaces made out of a variety of materials. She's been selling a lot of brooches with pretty antique-style frames around an image lately, including a heart-shaped one with the Beauty and the Beast stained-glass window in it, and I think one of those will be my next purchase from her. In fact, as I was retrieving the shop link, I even spotted a Game of Thrones necklace! Must… not… buy…

Anyway, like with Atomic Lucite, I found Femme De Bloom on Instagram. More specifically, I saw all of these adorable BB-8 and R2-D2 brooches on super stylish women, and found out that she was their Maker. I was crushed when they were out of stock in her store, but found other pretty things that I wanted instead. My first purchase from Femme De Bloom was a pair of acrylic sparkly heart brooches, which are 1) perfect and 2) a great deal. I was very happy with the quality and promptly put a bunch of other things from her shop in my cart. And then, one magical day, I was scrolling through my Instagram and saw that she'd made another batch of BB-8s! I ran for my computer and bought it right that instant, along with two sets of sweater clips, and a pair of fabric earrings. She even threw in a pair of mint green earrings, even though her promo had ended a day or two before my order.

I love all my Femme De Bloom pieces, but BB-8 holds a special place in my heart. I wore it the very next day, after carrying it around my apartment a lot and just looking at it. It was sort of like when I was in sixth grade and I would bring my R2-D2 action figure to school with me every day, tucked into the front pocket of my backpack.

It's love!

Overall, Femme De Bloom is a great place to get Disney- and Star Wars-themed brooches (and earrings!). Her designs are fabulous and the quality and price are great.

Luxulite

Beautiful packaging, a sweet note, and a perfect pin!

Luxulite is another juggernaut in the novelty-brooch-wearing, pinup-style-leaning community. I was put off by the postage costs for a while, but finally took the plunge in January, and I'm quite glad I did! This cherry brooch is one of the simpler designs Luxulite offers, but the colors were perfect for a lot of my dresses, and it just called to me in a way that cherry items so rarely do. It took some time for this brooch to arrive from England, but it was 100% worth the wait! This piece is sturdy, well made, and absolutely perfect! It's another one of those pieces that you just want to hold in your hand for a while because it's so lovely.

Many of Luxulite's designs seem to be one-offs or limited-production pieces, so if you see something you like, you'd best jump on it right quick. I've learned this lesson the hard way with several pieces I didn't buy in time :(.

Based on this brooch, I think Luxulite deserves its reputation in the retro-style world. It's worth the postage and the wait for a brooch like this!

The Oblong Box Shop

This was my first purchase from the Oblong Box Shop itself, though I got one of their skirts from Unique Vintage and adore it. I'm not sure who makes this brooch, but I thought it was cute and threw it into my cart. It's a bit different from all my other brooches, and I think it'll be a fun piece to wear when winter is finally over!

Pin Em Up Designs

Order #1

Order #2

Pin Em Up Designs is an Etsy seller that specializes in sassy, awesome resin, button, and shrink-plastic pieces. I saw the 'feminist' brooch while browsing Etsy and just had to have it. It's a lovely large piece, and quite sturdy and well constructed. I had my eye on the 'Satan' badge at the same time (it's an old nickname…) but decided to exercise a little self-control and only got the one. It shipped quickly, the packaging was out of this world, and I was very happy with it, so after a suitable wait, I ordered a few more brooches. I wasn't sure about ordering a shrink-plastic pin, because it seems that the quality on those can vary quite widely, but the one I ordered is very nice: it's sturdy, the coloring is even, and it's very well drawn.

I really like the designs in this shop. The medal-style brooches are pretty unique, as is the use of alphabet beads, and many of the brooches use really interesting glitter and color combinations. This shop also offers a lot of options to customize shrink-plastic items with your choices of colors, as well as a choice between glitter and no glitter. I couldn't resist getting glitter on my Mug 'o Men's Tears, which I shall wear proudly as I read my favorite anti-MRA websites. Misandry is not a thing, people. But I digress.

Overall, Pin Em Up Designs is an excellent store for the feminist who loves glitter and clever, in-your-face cheeky pins!

One more post to go! Check back on Monday for the exciting conclusion of Broochstravaganza, featuring the Sparkle Bakery, Summer Blue Jewelry, and VivaLaLux!

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