I finally tried out Sixteen92! Full disclosure, Claire wanted to send me free samples when she opened but it got lost in the mail. Everything I got in the package is stuff I paid for (except for 2 free samples).
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| Candy! |
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I have to say, A+ for presentation. It's so neat and pretty! The shower gels & body lotions also came with safety seals, but I stupidly forgot to take a picture of it.
I wanted to only review the bath products first, but realized I'll be looking at the notes for the scents while doing the review. Since I like doing my perfume reviews blind, I decided to review 3 scents that I got in both perfume & bath product form.
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Perfume Oils General Review
I like the quality of these scents! These start of at about intimate whispering distance and only dry down after 1 1/2-2h. You get faint traces lingering on your skin for a few more hours after that though.
Anyway, on the scent reviews! As usual, all the reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. If any note surprises me, I write an overview.
Lolita
"Crisp Apple Skins, Tart Peach Candies, Rose Absolute, Sugared Violet"TL;DR: Candied apple/peach/nectarine Body Shop soap.
Raven
"Spiced apple, tea leaves, tobacco, guaiac wood"
I smell cool apples with a bit of woodiness. The apple mellowed into the scent and you get this tart, cool, woody scent.
The woody part makes me think of a room with history, that's decorated with a lot of mahogany panels. It definitely smells old, but it's a clean sort of old. Like the libraries in old homes that are open for tourists to visit —they're old but without the mustiness.
The old bit is definitely a subtle part of the scent that you can't catch in the soap form.
TL;DR: Cool apples in a room with history.
The woody part makes me think of a room with history, that's decorated with a lot of mahogany panels. It definitely smells old, but it's a clean sort of old. Like the libraries in old homes that are open for tourists to visit —they're old but without the mustiness.
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| The Long Library in Blenheim Palace...if you guys ever go there, check out the busts of the former dukes of Marlborough. One of them's really hot. Image courtesy of marshacannon.org |
The old bit is definitely a subtle part of the scent that you can't catch in the soap form.
TL;DR: Cool apples in a room with history.
Wicked
"Three vanillas, aged patchouli, marzipan buttercream"
Oh gods patchouli! Strong patchouli! There's this clay-like sweetness in it too. It smells like old, sweet clay. And the patchouli wafts up the most too. It's not the subtle quiet patchouli that grounds a note, it's the in your face and assaulting your nose type of patchouli. Someone in the elevator actually moved further away from me. Is there anyone who likes pure patchouli??
TL;DR: Old, sweet clay.
TL;DR: Old, sweet clay.
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Shower Gel General Review
Ok, first and foremost, Claire admits to formulating her products via bases and plans on reformulating them.
I have to say, I'm glad she's reformulating because I'm not a fan of her formula. First of all, her shower gels are very watery. Like incredibly watery.
Yup. The gif is not sped up in any way. Everything dribbled out that way. The first time I used it, I wasn't expecting it to be so watery, and lost more than half of a bottle when I squeezed it over my shower pouf.
UPDATE Jan 28, 2015: Another thing to note, the labels on these are NOT waterproof. Mine ran and peeled off, but I thought it was just for the sample sizes, but /u/Verorenee mentioned that her labels did the same. Here are photos of how my bottles look now:
Anyway, on to the scent reviews.
Black Sugar
"Spun brown sugar, red berries, vanilla and tonka bean absolute dance with a sprinkle of dirt, a swirl of cauldron smoke, and a drop of bittersweet cocao absolute."This is a generic heavier artificial "sugar" scent you can find with a lot of perfumers. So sugar note, with an amber/musk type of heaviness. I'm personally not a fan of this generic scent, but I know some people like it.
Caramel Candy Corn
"Vanilla, honey (vegan-safe), and buttery caramelized sugar"Oh gods..there's this cloying medicinal gumdrops sort of smell, and it rubs out to smell like burnt and still burning sugar. Yes, with that cloying smell burning sugar produces.
Raven
"Spiced apple, tea leaves, tobacco, guaiac wood"Honestly, if I didn't read those notes, I wouldn't be able to guess what it is. My first impression was that it smells like a soap that'll be in the private bathroom of an old school office with tons of mahogany furniture in it. I don't really smell the spiced part in this, and the apple just creates this sweet, cool scent. The tobacco and wood adds a masculine touch to this scent, so it really smells like a soap designed for the office of a guy. I can see this as a Molton Brown soap scent. Definitely my favourite in the lot.
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Body Lotion General Review
These are lightly moisturizing, and definitely not as moisturizing as what I'm used to. It's kind of expected from body lotions though. Like most body lotions, the big advantage try have is that they get absorbed in your skin pretty fast —within 3-5 min.
Unfortunately, I'm too used to HoG's pumpkin butters, which gets absorbed within 3-4 min and are way more moisturizing than every body lotion I've tried, so these aren't a win for me.
I don't know why, but in the lotion version, this smells like boozy apples. Beer and apples, to be exact. In the perfume form, the apples & peaches are perfectly balanced to create this juicy candied fruit sort of scent, where you'll have a hard time identifying the fruits unless you've read the notes.
You can't really identify the violet or rose in either forms unless you're looking out for them, but they're a bit more obvious in the lotion and gives the scent a clean, powder room sort of feel to it.
This does smell like toasted marshmallows! So delicious! Unfortunately, there's a lotion scent, which I assume is the base scent of the lotion.
Holy crap, patchouli! Strong patchouli! The vanilla & marzipan bit in a lotion form ended up turning into this chemical-ish cloying sweet scent. It smells like ancient whiteboard markers!
Lolita
"Crisp Apple Skins, Tart Peach Candies, Rose Absolute, Sugared Violet"I don't know why, but in the lotion version, this smells like boozy apples. Beer and apples, to be exact. In the perfume form, the apples & peaches are perfectly balanced to create this juicy candied fruit sort of scent, where you'll have a hard time identifying the fruits unless you've read the notes.
You can't really identify the violet or rose in either forms unless you're looking out for them, but they're a bit more obvious in the lotion and gives the scent a clean, powder room sort of feel to it.
Toasted Marshmallow
"Gooey marshmallows lightly toasted over a campfire"This does smell like toasted marshmallows! So delicious! Unfortunately, there's a lotion scent, which I assume is the base scent of the lotion.
Wicked
"Three vanillas, aged patchouli, marzipan buttercream"Holy crap, patchouli! Strong patchouli! The vanilla & marzipan bit in a lotion form ended up turning into this chemical-ish cloying sweet scent. It smells like ancient whiteboard markers!
This makes wish I'd gotten Lolita as a perfume oil instead of just as lotion. Oh well. And gosh that's runny shower gel. It's good to have a heads up so I don't pour all mine out too fast when it gets here.
ReplyDeleteI love it as a perfume oil! And someone may have gotten the new formula and she reported the opposite problem. Apparently, it's so viscous, that it's hard for it to get out of the bottle. I guess there was an overcorrection?
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