Solstice Scents: Spring 2013 Review (Part 1)

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

The Spring 2013 selection offered by Solstice Scents has a little something for everyone.

You know what's fantastic about seasonal scents? The ability to be instantly transported to another season just with a small whiff! This is doubly fantastic if you live in an area where one particular season seems to stretch out longer than the others. I'm in New England, and sometimes it feels like winter never ends. The best thing I've enjoyed so far about exploring new scents are spring and summer scents because I know I'll be hoarding them come winter!

Solstice Scents offers all kinds of bath and body goodies like soaps, soaks and scrubs, but what they're most well-known for (as you may have guessed from their name) is their collection of scents. It seems a bit overwhelming when you first start browsing. However, they have a nifty master reference page that not only breaks down their scents by what kinds of fragrance families they live in, but it also gives you a peek at the different seasonal offerings.

Solstice Scents Spring 2013

Solstice Scents bundles their entire seasonal offerings in sample packs, so if you are interested in checking out everything for a season's release you can purchase it all in one go or cherry-pick individually if that's your sort of thing. For $19.50 you can get the spring collection sample pack which works out to about $2.40 per vial (which isn't too far off from the price for individual vials).

For the Spring 2013 release, the following scents are included in the sample pack:

• Blossom Tea Jam Cakes
• Cascade of Gold (Premium Fragrance)
• Chantilly Cream
• Chiffon
• Dellamorte
• Devil's Millhopper
• Garden Gate
• Spirit Tree

For this review, I'm going to check out the first four fragrances in the Spring 2013 sample collection offered by Solstice Scents. 

Blossom Jam Tea by Solstice Scents

Blossom Jam Tea Cakes

Full size: 0.35oz glass roll-on bottle for $15.00 USD
Sample vial: $2.50 USD

Blossom Jam Tea Cakes features the mouthwatering aromas of Petit Fours filled with floral infused jams and preserves, enrobed in sweet fondant, warm southern tea cakes topped with a delicate lavender buttercream and a subtle waft of hot tea. A rich cakey base supports light floral and fruit notes to create a beautiful atmospheric spring gourmand fragrance.

 I'm no perfume expert, but after writing up the Beginner's Guide to Fragrances, I got a good look at the anatomy of a perfume. The "base" is usually whatever grounds the fragrance, and it slowly reveals itself after the top and middle notes have evaporated.

With that said, I think the description of "a rich cakey base" is totally off the mark.  This is not the base, this is the instant top note that wallops you in the nose. "HEY!  HEY GUESS WHAT?! I'M A CAKE--!" It's so excited to let your nose know it's a cake fragrance that it pretty much leaps off your skin after about 15 minutes.  At least... this was my experience. A quick perusal on the SS forum post for this scent shows that everyone's milage varied with the cakey notes.

I've had difficulty in the past with scents not smelling on the mark if I left the vials sitting too long, so I made sure to give Blossom Tea Jam Cakes a good shake before each application, and I've worn it multiple times so that I didn't have any hasty impressions. One thing that left me bummed was that I didn't notice any jam. Once the cakey fragrance leaped off my wrist, it morphed into a sort of soury floral scent. Not "past the expiration date" sour, more like a lactic-acid sour. I am guessing this is the "delicate lavender buttercream", but alas, no fruit jam for me!

Duration: This was not a very robust scent for me, but it wasn't a wuss either. By the end of the day I'd have to press my nose up close to tell if it was still there. Once the cake scent disappeared, the remaining lavender buttercream fragrance stayed pretty constant the rest of the way through. It clings pretty closely to the skin as well, so you won't leave a lingering trail of fragrant tea cakes wherever you walk.

Score: 2.5/5 

As with any fragrance, your milage will vary. For me I just didn't enjoy this scent too much. It had all the makings of something I'd enjoy (fruits! food! flowers!) and dips into multiple fragrance families, but it unfolds as a bit of a mess on my skin. Plus points off for NO JAM. Come on!

Cascade of Gold (full size) by Solstice Scents

Cascade of Gold (Premium Fragrance) 

Full size: 5ml glass roll-on bottle for $17.00 USD
Sample vial (half full): $2.50 USD

Cascade of Gold is an utterly amazing, 100% natural and exquisite blend of essential oils, absolutes and Indian attars blended in our rice bran carrier oil.  Notes of sandalwood, white sandalwood, honeysuckle, champa and white lotus combine to form a divine and meditative scent that is also very sensual.  

Cascade of Gold has a base of exotic incensey woods with a very strong amber note that has subtle balsamic undertones.  The floral notes are delicately blended so as to add just the right exotic touch to the warm wood and amber notes.  It smells like bottled sunset with the last of the days' golden orange rays peeking out mixed with humid deep south air that has been perfumed by a concentration of mid spring blooms.  

Maybe I don't even need to write a review with a description like that available (and there's a lot more Solstice Scents has to say about this fragrance on their site)! For reference, some of the fragrances Solstice Scents offers are "premium" - which means they use a blend of high quality essential oils, absolutes, etc. This is the good stuff by SS's standards, and they all come in smaller 5ml bottles.

Even to my novice nose I could tell this was not your average scent. There's a lot going on, but unlike poor, confused Blossom Tea Jam Cakes, everything in Cascade of Gold mingles and melds together in a harmonious way. It has a warm, smoky-but-sweet quality to it when first applied, like incense but not over the top.  As it sits on the skin it softens into something simultaneously toasty and warm with a gentle creaminess that takes the edge off. I definitely get how some people interpret this scent as being sexy or sensual, but to me it was more like being enveloped in a warm blanket dusted with light, smoky incense.

Duration: Here's where Cascade of Gold falls flat. For a premium scent, I'd expect this thing to be sticking to my skin all day, but by lunchtime it was already on its way out. However, for those 5-6 hours it was on my skin, it smelled so, so nice and calming. I got a little moment of zen throughout my morning at work each time I got a whiff! It also clings pretty closely, so I feel this would make a nice scent to wear for an intimate setting - a close, shared experience rather than a smoke-bomb throughout the entire room.

Score: 4/5

I'd give it a 5/5 if it lasted longer, but I still really enjoyed this scent! I can't always be wearing zesty citrus scents all the time, and this was a great change of pace for me. I picked up the 5ml full size when it went on sale a while back ($15 instead of $17 USD), and I'm glad I did.

Chantilly Cream by Solstice Scents

Chantilly Cream

Full size: 0.35oz glass roll-on bottle for $13.00 USD
Sample vial: $2.50 USD

Our Chantilly Cream is white fluffy whipped cream sweetened with vanilla and just a touch of peach nectar. A light addition of lovely yellow mandarin essential oil tempers the juicy peach note. The primary notes in this blend are the whipped cream and a blend of vanillas and they are also the longest lasting. The peach nectar and yellow mandarin are more detectable in the cold sniff of the blend and are very subtle on the skin and add a juicy touch to the more dominant scent of the whipped cream accord.   

Man, I should have read the description before I applied Chantilly Cream the first time. "Woo, peaches and cream!  I love peaches!" Whoops - according to Solstice Scents, the juicy peach fragrance is more of a subtle suggestion and not the star of the show. 

Chantilly Cream starts out as a clean, peachy scent. It's not sticky sweet, but it's not "sharp" either like some peach scents and flavors. Actually... it kind of reminds me of the diced peaches in syrup they sell in the little cups. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's definitely a discernable peach. It's not juicy, but it's not a dry, stiff scent either. Just clean peach. 

I hope you enjoyed that little peachy holiday because it doesn't stick around very long. After about a half an hour it steps back into the shadows. It's not wholly gone, but really more of a whisper than anything. What I like about Chantilly Cream is that the cream smells... creamy. Sometimes with fragrances that use creams I can smell a bit of sourness. However, here it's airy, fluffy, and tinged with vanilla. The vanilla is very gracious though and doesn't butt in - it's only a supporting actor.

Duration: If you aren't heartbroken that this really is "whipped vanilla cream with hints of peach" instead of "WHOA PEACHES oh and some cream", you'll thoroughly enjoy how it mellows out into a fluffy creamy scent as the day goes on. By the end of the day I could still detect some sweet vanilla on my wrists. 

Score: 3.5/5

If you're frightened of perfumes and are looking for something delicate and gentle (or maybe you aren't frightened at all and just want those qualities in a scent), Chantilly Cream is a great fragrance. It's very soft and understated. If I were to personify it, I'd say it was that softspoken person in your group of friends who has a habit of putting others first at their own expense. It's not pushy, nor does it demand your full attention; instead it is very content to sit on your skin.  "Oh, don't mind me, I'll be here." I can't see myself buying the full size, but I have used my sample several times and enjoyed it.

Chiffon by Solstice Scents

Chiffon

Full size: 0.35oz glass roll-on bottle for $14.00 USD
Sample vial: $2.50 USD

Chiffon is a dual concept fragrance that brings together the airy, sweet and refreshingly tart taste of Lemon Chiffon pie and the elegant, wispy and equally airy beauty of chiffon fabric. A very special top-shelf, perfectly sweet and non-cloying vanilla (one of the vanillas in Nightgown) provides a base for a delicate touch of white amber and white musk.  Chiffon is completed with the bright and uplifting scent of pure lemon myrtle essential oil. 

Here's another example of seeing a pretty picture and making assumptions. "OH BOY, LEMONS! I LOVE TART LEMONS!"

Sigh.

That's not to say Chiffon is a bad scent, but when you apply something and expect lemons and are greeted with a fluffy lemon marshmallow, it's a little disorienting. The peculiar thing about Chiffon is that it's supposed to grow stronger as it stays on your skin. Instead of a tart lemonade (or a tart lemon meringue pie for that matter), it's more of a creamy, lemon-vanilla. There's zero tartness, no sparkling zing. Your lemon was sent off to finishing school and lost all her tartness and returned a refined, dignified lady.

Imagine Madame Lemon is getting ready to go to a party. She's a bit insecure because all the other fruits aren't as sour or tart. She coats herself in cream and sugar and has a lovely time out. You know there's some lemon in there--it's more like a suggestion than a presence. However, the creamy, sugary vanilla is much, much more dominant on my skin. I don't get a Pledge Hardwood Cleaner in Lemon effect, which I suppose is nice, but I don't experience any of that fun lemon meringue pie tartness either. It's light, airy, but a bit sugary sweet. 

Duration: After wearing this for four hours, but it seems they weren't lying about it getting stronger. It's like the poor lemon is being suffocated by her sugary, creamy chiffon getup. It's not offensive though, and the lemon seems a bit weaker than I anticipated. The gauzy, airy "chiffon" sugar is what sticks around the longest, and even after a shower I could still detect it on my wrists.  

However, something bizarre happens towards the very end on my skin. The smell turns kind of manufactured and reminds me... of charcoal air filters, the kind you put in an air purifier. Not sure how that happened. We had one that burned out, and the end-scent for this fragrance instantly reminded me of that.

Score: 3/5

I can't see myself getting the full size, but I will probably wear the sample again. I've had my mind change on different scents before (Haus of Gloi's Milkmaid and Komodo both wound up smelling much nicer than I initially observed), so maybe this one will grow on me too!