Hi there!  I’m rivercitylizzy from The Nature of Beauty, here at Luna’s gracious invitation to present a guest post for your amusement.  Mahalo, Luna!

First I have a secret for you all.  Don’t be afraid, you can come closer, it’s not THAT kine secret Don’t tell Luna though, I don’t wanna get thwacked…you ready?  Here it is:  eternal procrastinator that I am, I had not one word of this post planned in advance.  In fact, until I got home from work Wednesday night (a whopping 11 hours after I began) I did not even know what topic I would be writing about.  Eek.  Then I opened up the mailbox and `auwe!  What did I find but my inspiration nestled snugly between junk mail and catalogs–the fragrances from Solstice Scents I had ordered just three days prior!

The universe, she takes good care of me.

Solstice Scents is a perennial favorite of mine since my introduction to the brand nearly a year ago.  There are several reasons for this: their branding is consistent, appealing to me (that is, the theme is one I identify with), and professional without loosing all traces of personalization (for example, the name of the scent on each bottle/sample vial is handwritten–legibly!); their scents are hauntingly beautiful, complex (with many wonderful layers of scent to discover throughout wear time), long-lasting, and unique; their packaging for full-size fragrances is both lovely and consistently easy to use (read: reliably dispenses product); and their price point is very reasonable ($2.50 for samples–including LE!–and $9-$15 regular price full sizes…which are 10 ml).  I particularly appreciate that the price of full size perfumes at Solstice Scents appears to be based on the number and quality of the ingredients used, rather than whether a scent is “general catalog” or “special/limited edition.”

With that background in mind I will say that when Angela, the owner/perfumer, announced the coming Valentine’s Collection on the Solstice Scents blog I felt some trepidation, as she confessed “We went cherry crazy this year (which is only slightly less insane than plum crazy haha).”  Cherry notes, they are not always my friends.  So I approached this collection with a heavy dose of skepticism.  This year’s offerings to St. Valentine included 4 new scents–Black Forest, Cherry Cordial, German Chocolate Cake, and Nightgown–plus two of their GC scents that fit the V-Day mood, Cherry Vanilla Amberosia (not a typo) and Violet Truffle, offered in their popular bath/body products (Ganache, a whipped body cream, and Burnishing Glace, a sprayable “dry” body/hair oil).

I was glad to see that despite the “cherry crazy” theme, half of the new offerings did not include cherry notes at all, and one of the cherry scents seemed like it had enough friends of my skin in the notes to work.  I forged ahead and purchased full sizes of Nightgown and Black Forest and requested a sample of German Chocolate Cake as my freebie at checkout.  I placed the order on Sunday, February 26 and as stated above my package arrived on Wednesday, February 29.  That’s going from FL to CA via USPS in THREE BUSINESS DAYS.  Awesome CS, Solstice Scents has it!

Okay on to the scents:

Black Forest– In the bottle, I can pick up the dark sweet cherry notes but they are not heavy on the bitter almond (which these accords can have) and are balanced by rich and spicy woods and a peek of bright pink pepper.  On the skin, though…oh, on the skin, Black Forest epitomizes what I love most about Solstice Scents: hour after hour of delight exploring the many layers of this scent.  For me, the woods and pepper take center stage almost immediately, with just a hint of the cherries, and I’m reminded of a type of crack seed that I favor called “cake olive” (hush, you, it’s an acquired taste!).  This is followed by the tobacco and hay, roughly 1/2-1 hour later and balanced with the prior notes.  The official description mentions “a humidor housing a very fine and exceedingly dark chocolate cherry pipe tobacco” and I have to say at this stage I agree–it is gorgeous and the tobacco note in Black Forest does not turn into something nasty and unmentionable on my skin.  At last, after several hours, it settles at last into its final stage of delicious, creamy vanilla-sweet-woodsy incense.  Dead sexy.

German Chocolate Cake (sample)– On cold sniff from the vial the sweet fluffy cocoa and a mouth-watering toasty coconut are evident, with no pecans in sight (scent? hm). As it warms up on the skin, this scent blossoms, and a lovely rich chocolate-vanilla comes forward balanced nicely with sweet shredded coconut and toasted praline pecans.  Gah, this is more gorgeous than I expected, not being biased toward foodie scents.  This scent is a very limited release (one of the components was unexpectedly discontinued by the supplier), and I’m hoping I can still lay hands on a full size.  Otherwise, I shall be hoarding this little vial.

Nightgown– From the bottle I get mostly sweet creamy white florals, not much of the vanilla/white chocolate which would lend a more foodie edge to the blend.  It is not the headache-inducing, hit-you-over-the-head kine “white floral” fragrance, however, even straight out of the bottle.  On the skin this opens up into a lush and seductive blend of tropical blooms (the actual thing, which is pretty amazing to me, having smelled both tuberose and tiare in real life), vanilla (a floral sort of vanilla, rather than a buttery/sugary one), and creamy/nutty white chocolate.  This for me is a nostalgic scent, taking me back nearly 10 years to my first lessons as a hula student and invoking the heady mix of creamy sweet haupia, cocoa butter melted into sun-kissed skin, and fresh tuberose leis and tiare hairpieces warmed by the exertions of a heartfelt performance.

Sweet dreams 

So awhile ago Dawn from Troika Organics offered to send me some of her products to try including her deodorant that she had started making. I received some goodies on June 4th and was pleasantly surprised! She sent me a bottle of after shower oil, lip candy lip scrub, sugar scrub, deodorant and a sample container of sugar scrub in another scent. The after shower oil was scented with Candied Cotton a fruity blend of cotton candy, caramel, vanilla, stawberry, fig leaf, plums, mandarin, lemon drops and raspberry, ending with soft musk and woods at the base. The deodorant was scented with Dark Mist a A warm, refreshing, misty tropical rain scent. The full size scrub was scented with Carnival Candy Apples – juicy, plump, dripping red candy apples, my favorite scent of the bunch! And the mini scrub was scented with Sweet Thing – lemon sugar cupcakes! The lip candy lip scrub is unscented. I’ve ordered a bottle of lotion from her to try so I can do a full review, but I just want to gush about the deodorant for a moment. Some of you know what I’ve been through trying to find an all natural deodorant. Literally every natural deodorant I’ve tried both commercial and indie have made my underarms completely raw and they also break out in hives/bleeding sores, most times in under three hours. I literally have scars under my arms. Going without deodorant isn’t an option because by the end of the day my underarms are raw and sore. I’ve tried to switch over to all natural, well, everything due to my lyme disease. Most chemicals just aren’t tolerated by my body. I’m still amazing I can use nail polish and my hair hasn’t fallen out from bleaching it.

When I received the deodorant I can honestly say I wasn’t looking forward to trying it. I figured it would be like all the rest. So that night I showered and hesitantly put it on. To my surprise, hours later, my underarms weren’t even slightly red, let a lone raw. I was shocked and thrilled. I’ve been wearing it since with no issues and it’s actually made my underarms lighter, the scars themselves are even getting lighter! This is a holy grail item for me and I’m super happy about it. The only time I had an issue was when I shaved my underarms and put it on immediately after my shower. Oops. I forgot it had baking soda in it. Holy crap that burned. Lesson learned very quick. I’d also like to add that I don’t have to apply this deodorant EVERY day. I can actually go a couple of days without applying it. No stink, no issues! It’s freaking awesome.

The lip scrub is really awesome. It’s kind of a butter with sugar in it. I only wish it were flavored as the beeswax scent is a little overpowering, but it’s just a personal preference. It works great and feels awesome on the lips. The sugar scrubs have been wonderful. Normally after I use a sugar scrub I still have to apply some sort of moisturizer, however I haven’t had to with these. The sugar scrubs aren’t very abrasive either, they’re made with fine sugar instead of coarse sugar so you don’t have to worry about too much scrub! I’ve been using the after shower oil in a few different ways. The candied cotton scent smells lovely by the way. I’ve used it as an after shower oil all over my body, as a face moisturizer and I’ve added some to my bath. It’s been awesome for all three uses. I actually put it in Fumiko’s bath today and she loved it! It’s super moisturizing and soaks into the skin well.

All of her products that I’ve had the pleasure of trying are awesome, I can’t wait to try her lotion and am excited about writing an official review. I definitely recommend her products! Also Carnival Candy Apples is one of the most delicious apple scents I’ve ever smelled, I ordered my lotion in this scent. Dark Mist is also amazing and delicious, and well dark. Love it! Onto the pictures!

I had a gift card for Eden Fantasy and decided to use it to get some bath products I’d been wanting. So I made my order Wednesday night which was the 2nd and it arrived today, which is the 4th. Holy cow I didn’t expect it that fast, plus I got a free vibrator. I ordered the Sliquid Splash in grapefruit thyme, which smells amazing by the way. I also got the Naughty Bubbles by Booty Parlor which smells so pretty. And the Violet Moon Shimmer Cream by Sensuous Beauty which I’m sorry to say I can’t use. I put a little on my arm to test and it’s given me a horrible migraine. I really wanted to like it. But the smell reminds me of a natural bug bite salve, and there is the whole migraine thing. I can’t wait to try the Splash and the Naughty Bubbles though.

Anyways, pictures!