Solstice Scents Winter Collection Part I
I do believe the discovery of
Solstice Scents has created a couple of fangirls here at Indie Know. It seems like every time I go to buy something for the blog or my personal use, Solstice Scents has something new and wonderful that I absolutely have to try and then tell you all about. We refrained from discussing Autumn Part II, since it came so close on the heels of the review of
Autumn Part I, but rest assured, purchases were made.
This time around, my purchases were small (I'm sure Kristin bought more than I), but I did discover a new product for me that I can't wait to tell you all about. As always, on a shared purchase, look for comments peppered throughout the review for other takes on different products.
So let's dig right in with:
Perfume
Dark Ginger Spicecake
Gingerbread, Woodsy Musk, Patchouli EO and Vetiver EO
AG: I believe I've heard this described as a good foodie scent for anyone who's not usually into foodie scents, and I have to agree - I'm not a gourmand lover but this one has my attention. On me, it starts out as a very dark chocolate scent with almost no sweetness. It shifts pretty quickly into a mellow version of a gingerbread cookie. I get a light amount of cinnamon (impressive, since my skin usually amps cinnamon like crazy) along with ginger and other spices, but it's got a beautifully deep and rich base. I believe the base smells like dark molasses. I don't get any of the patchouli or vetiver mentioned in the description, so I assume they're hanging out in the background, adding to the deep and grounded base. The scent is certainly sweet, but nowhere near as sweet as some of Solstice's other bakery scents like Blueberry Muffin Batter or Chantilly Cream. It does fade down on me within an hour or two, but the lovely molasses base sticks around for many hours. Jessye picked this one up as a Whipped Soap.
Snowmint Mallow
Peppermint, Vanilla Cake, Flaked Coconut, Sugar Cookies & Marshmallow Creme
AG: Bakery scents can be tricky, but this smells incredibly realistic on me. I tested it without reading the description and immediately pictured buttery yellow cookies with shredded coconut baked into them. The other major player is a big hit of fresh mint; there's enough there to give me that cold sensation straight up to my sinuses. After maybe 15-20 minutes the mint settles down to a background role and lets the cake come join the cookies. The coconut has mostly gone by this point as well. Unfortunately this scent fades pretty quickly on me, but it's fun while it lasts.
Whipped Soap
Dark Ginger Spicecake
Gingerbread, Woodsy Musk, Patchouli EO and Vetiver EO
This whipped soap is creamier and heavier than the
originally reviewed Wail of the Banshee. I also noticed particulates in this one that I had not seen in previous whipped soaps. I'm noticing with the drier winter air, it is a little more drying on my skin, and I am actually having to more regularly lotion, which is a small complaint and something that I should probably do more often. I have naturally oily skin and rarely lotion anything on a schedule except for my legs.
This is a complicated and intriguing scent. It says on the website that it has a “mysterious depth.” You would not think food smells mixed with incense would be such a delightful smell and yet somehow it works. The patchouli creates a spice, while the vetiver brings the scent from cake to something earthier. I used a massive amount on only my hands to see what would happen and only a faint full-body scent remained. It's fantastic and subtle afterwards, with a much stronger aromatherapy in the shower while in use. And after its first use, I couldn't help but have a delicious late night snack of iced gingerbread and chai tea.
Kristin adds: I dramatically increased the size of my soap collection with this order.
Lemon Ginger Creams
Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies Filled With Vanilla-Lemon Cream
Kristin: Mmmmmmm. I was worried that the ginger would be overwhelming in this but nope, the lemon stands out strongly and the ginger is only hinted at in a sweet gingerbread note. But the lemon isn't a tart, fruity lemon. It's definitely the cream filling of a sandwich cookie kind of sweet lemon. Since this is a soap, the lemon never faded away while I was using it though the owner noted that in perfume form, the lemon fades away after the initial application. This was my surprise favorite of the order.
Snowshoe Pass
White Amber, White Musk, Vanilla Accord, Peppermint Cream, Cold Winds
Kristin: I honestly can't decide if I like this one or not. It's one of those scents that's just very
interesting and I keep smelling it because I think it's neat but I don't know if I'm actually enjoying it. For me, the musk note is very distracting in this scent and gives it all a weird kind of "undertone" - for lack of better descriptor. The peppermint cream isn't the sharp hard candy kind of peppermint but it's a soft milky version that sits lightly on top. It's complicated from the beginning and in soap form, stays complicated.
Outpost
Sugar Crystals, Spruce, Fir, Soft Woods, Bayberry, Mistletoe, Amber
Kristin: You'll get to hear more about this scent further down when Jessye talks about her Burnishing Glace. She tried her Glace before I tried this soap and she was excited about how good it was. She and I have very different tastes so I was a little cautious when I opened this one up. It was awesome to find out that I loved it too! It reminds me of pine trees with a hint of smokiness in the background.
Sugarvale
Candied Pecans, Butterscotch, Buttered Rum, Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup, Hot Pralines & Milk Chocolate Cocoa
Kristin: This one smells exactly like Private Selection (the Kroger Brand) English Toffee Ice Cream. I kid you not. I had the ice cream out and the soap out at the same time and smelled both in rapid succession. Granted, one will probably make you sticky when you try to clean with it but other than that, they're probably the same thing. In case you don't have a freezer comically stuffed with varieties of ice cream to do smell testing with, imagine a thick caramel over pecans.
Dead Sea Salt Milk Bath
Spiced Cranberry & Spruce
Sugared Cranberries & Spruce Essential Oil
When we were first smelling this in the container, Kristin commented on how it smelled like Kool-Aid powder. It was extremely sweet, almost astringently so, and smelled almost dusty like a powder does in your nose. In the bath, the sweet melts down into tart with just hints of the woodier smells. I would be careful with these salts if you're scent sensitive. I could see them easily becoming overwhelming if too large a quantity was used. But if you like a tart cranberry scent, this is definitely the way to go.
Burnishing Glacé
Outpost
Sugar Crystals, Spruce, Fir, Soft Woods, Bayberry, Mistletoe, Amber
We're going to do this one backwards and discuss the scent first. This is just a yummy woodsy, Solstice Scents smell, which is nothing just if you love woodsy smells as much as I, and Solstice does them so very well. The woods are sweetened just a bit by the bayberry and sugar crystals and then the whole thing is mellowed with amber. It's delicious.
I had not tried a Burnishing Glacé until this one, largely because I buy perfumes I love on their own and see no reason in layering, as well as I worry that I will just end up with a muddled scent that is undecipherable in its original components. Basically - I don't trust my ability to layer intricate and amazing things. I am not that imaginative or creative.
The Glacé has a multitude of uses from under a perfume to bath oil to hair oil. When I chose to buy Outpost as the Burnishing Glacé, it was because the scent of Outpost seemed to fantastic and intricate for a whipped soap; I am now wishing I had bought it as a soap as well.
The first thing I tried it as was a bath oil. Oh. My. Bath Oil. Most oil-based bath products are greasy to the touch on my skin, and I absolutely must wash them off after I use them. I still chose to wash this one off after use, but that's because I was distracted by how beautiful it smelled and used almost half the bottle in the one bath. You could easily get 4 to 5 baths out of this one bottle if you have more control than I. And in this bath, my goodness, it is like bathing in liquid silk. This oil is rich and luxurious and just felt amazing on my skin. I love the feel of it. If you have dry skin, this would be a fantastic oil to bathe in and then rub into your skin afterwards. I have never felt a bath oil so soft and smooth.
I've
reviewed a hair oil previously, and used it on another person because I have such fine, naturally oily hair. Since that review, I put a bleached blonde panel in my hair, which just means I have a chunk of blonde in my hair. Bleach is awful for your hair, very awful, as anyone can tell you. After feeling how beautiful the oil in this glacé is, I decided I would very carefully try it in the panel. Very, very carefully, I spritzed just one spray into my hair and then used my fingers to work it through the whole panel. My hair loved it. The ends had begun to feel a little brittle from the bleach, like it wasn't getting enough moisture from my conditioner. If it weren't so obviously not my natural hair color, you would have no idea just by feel anymore.
I would perhaps not suggest this as a hair oil for someone who has a lot of hair and regularly needs to a fair amount of it on your hair. I could see that becoming cost preventative at around $15 a bottle, but if you just occasionally need a little extra moisture, it's a perfect option. That one spritz and half a spritz into just the bottom dried with the water with no residue, and my hair feels just as soft and wonderful as it always does. There is no product residue of any kind, and to make it even better, it has a lovely scent. I will be keeping the rest of the bottle for weekly moisture for my hair instead of using it out as bath oil. I have fallen in love with this product.
Kristin adds: Winter Part II was initially intended as a just before Christmas release but is now looking like it'll be somewhere between Christmas and the New Year. Keep an eye on the Solstice Scents
Facebook Page for status updates.
How about you, readers? What's your favorite Solstice Scent product? Have a winter scent you love is back, or one you want to see coming in Part II? Let us know in the comments!
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