Haus of Gloi (HoG) just announced their Spring release is happening this year on March 15th, and their final restock is happening on April 5th. Out of all the scents they plan on releasing, I happen to have last year's spring scents in:
I haven't reviewed Ploughman before and will be reviewing it now. To make it easier, I'll compile my previous scent reviews all in this post, as well as write up a new review for the bubbling scrub, perfume oils, butterbombs & whipped soap now that I've spent a year trying way too many indie brands.
For first timers: a bubbling scrub is basically a scrub that also has soap in it, so there's a lather when you use it. Think of it as a soap that you don't need a loofah for.
HoG's bubbling scrub is tied with Alchemic Muse's (AM) for my favourite soapy scrub. They're both equally good, but different, so your preference depends on what you're looking for. HoG's soapy scrub has smaller granules of sugar, so it doesn't exfoliate as hard. When you use it, it's more like using soap with a shower pouf, so it's suitable for daily use. When I go traveling and don't have time to wait for my shower pouf to dry between hotels, I bring HoG's bubbling scrub with me. It's now my must-have travel item.
Meanwhile, AM's is like scrubbing with a really rough, exfoliating loofah/bath mitt, so you really exfoliate. It's more scrub than soap and definitely a tad too exfoliating for daily use, unlike HoG's. I also get more of that dry feeling from AM's soapy scrub, but it could be because I tend to go nuts with my exfoliating frenzy.
Scent-wise, you get more of a scent pay off from HoG. HoG's soapy scrub scents fills up the entire bathroom. Meanwhile, AM's soapy scrubs loses most of their scent as soon as you wet it, and what you get is this unscented soap scent, which I'm assuming is the base scent the soapy scrub comes with.
I was initially skeptical the tiny little bath bomb is enough for an entire tub, but yes it is! It's still good even as I kept topping up the bath to heat up the water. The scent is slightly more concentrated than the scent from bath products from Lush & Moonalisa, and waaaayyy more concentrated than Kiss My Sass. I personally like the smaller sizes of these butterbombs since they still last an entire tub while weighing less –which saves me on international shipping.
I've mentioned before that HoG's perfume oils don't work out on me, but I still think they're amazing quality. Guess what? Turns out they do work on me! When I first tried out HoG's Milkmaid, Splediferous, Troika & Mango Sticky Rice, none worked out on me and I decided to destash Milkmaid. Now I really regret doing that. I have no idea why I forgot to destash Splendiferous, because a year in, it became amazing. Unfortunately, this means that I'm never, ever destashing any of my HoG.
HoG's oils have great throw and longevity and even after a year, it's still very potent. I can catch a whiff somewhere in between casual conversation & faux whispering distance for at least 2 hours. Afterwards, it goes down to intimate whispering distance, but it stays this way for about 7-8h.
I've seen people ask what whipped soaps are and this is where it gets complicated. Different companies have different definitions of whipped soap. For example, Alchemic Muse, Debaucherous Bath & Black Violet have whipped soap that's more like a bar soap softened and mushed up after many, many uses (though Black Violet's starts off like frozen double heavy cream and but just hardens with time). Personally, the two brands that I think have what whipped soaps are supposed to be is Solstice Scents (SS) & HoG. If you think "whipped cream" when you hear "whipped soap", HoG & SS have what you're looking for.
HoG's whipped soap has the same texture as frozen whipped cream -fluffy but slightly stiff to the touch, melts easily once in contact with your skin.
SS' whipped soap feels like actual whipped cream. Sticking your finger in it feels exactly the way you imagine clouds feel like. I loooove it.
My HoG whipped soaps have also passed the test of time –even after close to a year, as you can see from the gif, they still retain their original texture (maybe they got slightly stiffer, but I'm not sure if it's my imagination). My SS whipped soaps are only a few months old, but so far, they're still keeping they're original texture too. I'm mentioning this since my Black Violet whipped soap started of at just a bit stiffer and harder than HoG's, but after about 2 months in, it turned into the same mushed up bar soap consistency that Alchemic Muse's & Debaucherous Bath's whipped soaps have. So for international shoppers like me who like to buy in bulk and stock up for a year to save on shipping, HoG & SS are safe choices.
HoG lathers a bit more than SS's whipped soap, but even then, this is the most lather you'll get:
Since SS has even less of a lather than HoG's, it feels like I'm just rubbing shaving cream all over myself. That's why as a personal preference, I prefer HoG.
Both SS' & HoG's whipped soap has the least drying formula out of all the indie soaps I've ever tried. They feel like a really moisturising, mainstream liquid cream soap.
Scent-wise, these two brands' whipped soap can definitely fill up the entire shower and leave traces of the scent lingering faintly on you skin after showering. I've only tried one scent in SS' whipped soap (Kitchen), so I'm still holding off my final verdict on this, but so far I find that HoG's whipped soaps are more "true to scent". My SS' whipped soap smells very different from the perfume oil I got, and I still need to try more scents to figure out if it's that particular scent going wrong in whipped soap form, or if SS' unscented whipped soap still has a strong "base scent" that overwhelms any scent added.
As I've noted in a previous review, HoG scents smell differently in different forms. That's why for each scent review, I'll state in what form I got the scent in.
"Different from many of the milky notes that we generally use. This is a fresh milk."
Milk scents are always a high risk, high reward gamble for me. I love, love, love edible, creamy scents, but milk scents sometimes come off as a very milky, play-doh-ish scent that reminds me of certain baby formulas or cloyingly sweet Japanese milk candies. I was in a gambling mood and holy crap it paid off. This scent is gorgeous. I normally don't like soaking my face in very hot water and would keep my face out of the water until it cools, but as soon as the smell surfaces, I just had to sink myself into the water to drown myself in the scent.
It smells like milk and flowers, and somehow manages to maintain the perfect balance between the scents. It never became completely floral or completely creamy. As my nose adjusted to the smell, I also smell a note of something faintly metallic. It smells like old metal. You know that slightly salty, rusty smell you get on your hands when you rub your hands against aged metal? It's a scent some gourmands turn into and in this scent, there's just a hint of that –and it makes the entire thing smell so good.
This smell is so relaxing, I had to remind myself not to fall asleep and become a recipient of a Darwin Award. I normally get bored easily and can't stay too long in baths, but this smelled so good, I stayed in until the smell faded because I re-filled the tub too often. I didn't even read my book for the longest time, and just sat there sniffing and sniffing like I'm trying to trying to hide a runny nose at a fancy party.
TL;DR: Milk & florals
Unfortunately, I dumped this in my swap pile, and now I'm regretting it since Splendiferous ended up being so amazing after being aged for a year. This was my previous review:
Oh wow. The milk smell is extremely strong, with a heavy, musky floral smell to make it even heavier. The milk scent also smells cloyingly sweet, like those milk-flavoured candies that end up tasting play-doh-ish. I know play-doh taste salty since I wasn't a smart child, but somehow I associate that artificial milk taste with what I imagine a pastel play-doh cake would taste like. It took nearly an hour before the cloying, artificial milk scent disappears and now it smells like over-baked candied roses with a faint smell of incense and something bitter and old. Reminds me of the heady smell of entering a crowded temple in India, during a religious festival where there's barely any crowd control. It's very heavy and I'm not a fan.
TL;DR: Offerings in a very crowded temple in India.
"Well worn leather, dirt n' dandelions, carrot, a pinch of tobacco and a light sheen of feral skin musk."
This is freaking amazing. When I first opened the tub, I thought this was spring in a bottle. It smells like young, budding green plants and dewy, wet earth. Once you rub in on your wet skin, it's a burst of dirt, blue and leather. The combination becomes this cool (temperature, not style), sexy masculine scent. The tobacco bit is definitely not obvious in the scent, but I'm guessing it's adding to the masculine bitterness in the scent. When it washes off, the lingering scent it leaves on your skin is a bit sweeter and heavier on the blue, but overall, it's still the same sexy scent.
Seriously, this scent is just so freaking hot...and kinda naughty. Somehow, I imagine it as a scent on that one hot fling you keep going back to even though you know it'll never work, just because he's so much fun and irresistibly charming about being a terrible mistake. So charming, in fact, that you'll happily make the same terrible mistake again with 0 regrets.
Any of you watched Into The Woods? Remember Prince Charming?
That kind of guy.
My cousin and I totally fell in love with this scent. My cousin couldn't really describe why she loved it besides saying that it smells like the kind of masculine scent she likes. When I prodded her with more questions, her opinion is that if it has nicer packaging, it'll definitely pass off as a high-end soap –the kind that cost ridiculous amounts of money and you'll only get for someone as a present that says, "I don't know what the hell you like as a gift, but I have to give you something expensive, so here's a soap that costs an ungodly sum of money. You use soap, right? Right???"
TL;DR: Perfect scent for an irresistibly charming, lovable douche.
The herbal smell is definitely really, really strong. I blame the patchouli. It definitely smells clean, but I can't shake off the feeling that I'm putting on a clinical herbal salve. It's a more European herbal salve, which smells like a clean, cool sort of herbal, rather than an Asian one, which smells brown and ancient, though. The kind of herbal salves you get from an apothecary that looks like this:
I faintly smell some strawberries once I started lathering it up, but it smells like one of those medicated salves that claim to smell like strawberries, but the strawberry gave up and drowned in the medicated herbs smell after putting up a brief fight. My sister described it as, "Burnt liquorice with ethanol" after I prompted her for a better description than, "Ew! Ewwww!"
And that medicated smell lingers! I still smell it on my skin even after slathering the Mango Sticky Rice body butter all over me.
TL;DR: Herbal salve that tires to smell like strawberries.
Scent-wise, Selkie smells amazing. At first, I only got a strong wave of the blue smell crashing in, and I thought it smelt like the wild sea. It conjures images of high waves crashing into cliffs, sending sprays of water and earth.
Then a sandalwood scent that brings up romanticised images of old chests in forgotten attics emerges. Emphasis on romanticised...in my experience, old chests in forgotten attics usually just smell like mothballs and the various critters that called it home at some point in time.
TL;DR: Romanticized ancient wooden chest in a lighthouse by the sea.
This is what I previously wrote:
I wanted to swap this but somehow forgot to. I decided to give it another try and OHMYGOD. It's freaking amazing. The play-doh note calmed down and aged beautifully. It's still there but acts as a quiet base anchoring the scent and stopping it from going too searing. The sugared violets are in the forefront now, and the lemon pound cakes are in the background. It now smells like the cutest tea party ever. Think this is cute?
Well, this scent is even cuter. While it smells like something you can imagine sniffing in a scene from Alice in Wonderland or an Enid Blyton book, it's so, so refined and not kiddy at all. It's definitely an elegant, grown up interpretation of a tea party (the kind socialite moms throw for their kids and wonder why all the kids are so bored, they look more stoned than a guy on his 10th joint, when they're having so much fun) and so wearable as a perfume. I can go on and on raving about this scent. Now I've made up my mind, I'm NEVER destashing any of my HoG because it may smell good a few years into the future!
TL;DR: Adorable yet refined and elegant sugared violets and lemon pound cakes.
- Milk (butterbomb)
- Milkmaid (perfume oil)
- Ploughman (bubbling scrub)
- Ruth (bubbling scrub)
- Selkie (whipped soap)
- Splendiferous (perfume oil)
I haven't reviewed Ploughman before and will be reviewing it now. To make it easier, I'll compile my previous scent reviews all in this post, as well as write up a new review for the bubbling scrub, perfume oils, butterbombs & whipped soap now that I've spent a year trying way too many indie brands.
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Bubbling Scrub Review
For first timers: a bubbling scrub is basically a scrub that also has soap in it, so there's a lather when you use it. Think of it as a soap that you don't need a loofah for.
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| I don't know how to colour correct gif files. If you do, please let me know. |
HoG's bubbling scrub is tied with Alchemic Muse's (AM) for my favourite soapy scrub. They're both equally good, but different, so your preference depends on what you're looking for. HoG's soapy scrub has smaller granules of sugar, so it doesn't exfoliate as hard. When you use it, it's more like using soap with a shower pouf, so it's suitable for daily use. When I go traveling and don't have time to wait for my shower pouf to dry between hotels, I bring HoG's bubbling scrub with me. It's now my must-have travel item.
Meanwhile, AM's is like scrubbing with a really rough, exfoliating loofah/bath mitt, so you really exfoliate. It's more scrub than soap and definitely a tad too exfoliating for daily use, unlike HoG's. I also get more of that dry feeling from AM's soapy scrub, but it could be because I tend to go nuts with my exfoliating frenzy.
Scent-wise, you get more of a scent pay off from HoG. HoG's soapy scrub scents fills up the entire bathroom. Meanwhile, AM's soapy scrubs loses most of their scent as soon as you wet it, and what you get is this unscented soap scent, which I'm assuming is the base scent the soapy scrub comes with.
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Butterbomb Review
This feels heavenly. It doesn't fizz as much as other bath bombs I've gotten, and a more accurate description is that it gently froths. I'm so glad I didn't follow their suggestion of letting it crumble under running water, because it feels so incredible melting against your skin. It feels cool and silky and my skin feels amazing afterwards.I was initially skeptical the tiny little bath bomb is enough for an entire tub, but yes it is! It's still good even as I kept topping up the bath to heat up the water. The scent is slightly more concentrated than the scent from bath products from Lush & Moonalisa, and waaaayyy more concentrated than Kiss My Sass. I personally like the smaller sizes of these butterbombs since they still last an entire tub while weighing less –which saves me on international shipping.
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Perfume Oils Review
I've mentioned before that HoG's perfume oils don't work out on me, but I still think they're amazing quality. Guess what? Turns out they do work on me! When I first tried out HoG's Milkmaid, Splediferous, Troika & Mango Sticky Rice, none worked out on me and I decided to destash Milkmaid. Now I really regret doing that. I have no idea why I forgot to destash Splendiferous, because a year in, it became amazing. Unfortunately, this means that I'm never, ever destashing any of my HoG.
HoG's oils have great throw and longevity and even after a year, it's still very potent. I can catch a whiff somewhere in between casual conversation & faux whispering distance for at least 2 hours. Afterwards, it goes down to intimate whispering distance, but it stays this way for about 7-8h.
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Whipped Soap Review
I've seen people ask what whipped soaps are and this is where it gets complicated. Different companies have different definitions of whipped soap. For example, Alchemic Muse, Debaucherous Bath & Black Violet have whipped soap that's more like a bar soap softened and mushed up after many, many uses (though Black Violet's starts off like frozen double heavy cream and but just hardens with time). Personally, the two brands that I think have what whipped soaps are supposed to be is Solstice Scents (SS) & HoG. If you think "whipped cream" when you hear "whipped soap", HoG & SS have what you're looking for.
HoG's whipped soap has the same texture as frozen whipped cream -fluffy but slightly stiff to the touch, melts easily once in contact with your skin.
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| This whipped soap is actually over 8 months old and still soft! |
SS' whipped soap feels like actual whipped cream. Sticking your finger in it feels exactly the way you imagine clouds feel like. I loooove it.
My HoG whipped soaps have also passed the test of time –even after close to a year, as you can see from the gif, they still retain their original texture (maybe they got slightly stiffer, but I'm not sure if it's my imagination). My SS whipped soaps are only a few months old, but so far, they're still keeping they're original texture too. I'm mentioning this since my Black Violet whipped soap started of at just a bit stiffer and harder than HoG's, but after about 2 months in, it turned into the same mushed up bar soap consistency that Alchemic Muse's & Debaucherous Bath's whipped soaps have. So for international shoppers like me who like to buy in bulk and stock up for a year to save on shipping, HoG & SS are safe choices.
Both HoG & SS's whipped soaps has very low lather —almost like a slightly soapy shaving cream, and that's why they're great when you're having sensitive skin.
HoG lathers a bit more than SS's whipped soap, but even then, this is the most lather you'll get:
Since SS has even less of a lather than HoG's, it feels like I'm just rubbing shaving cream all over myself. That's why as a personal preference, I prefer HoG.
Both SS' & HoG's whipped soap has the least drying formula out of all the indie soaps I've ever tried. They feel like a really moisturising, mainstream liquid cream soap.
Scent-wise, these two brands' whipped soap can definitely fill up the entire shower and leave traces of the scent lingering faintly on you skin after showering. I've only tried one scent in SS' whipped soap (Kitchen), so I'm still holding off my final verdict on this, but so far I find that HoG's whipped soaps are more "true to scent". My SS' whipped soap smells very different from the perfume oil I got, and I still need to try more scents to figure out if it's that particular scent going wrong in whipped soap form, or if SS' unscented whipped soap still has a strong "base scent" that overwhelms any scent added.
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Scent Reviews
As I've noted in a previous review, HoG scents smell differently in different forms. That's why for each scent review, I'll state in what form I got the scent in.
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Milk Butterbomb
"Different from many of the milky notes that we generally use. This is a fresh milk."
Milk scents are always a high risk, high reward gamble for me. I love, love, love edible, creamy scents, but milk scents sometimes come off as a very milky, play-doh-ish scent that reminds me of certain baby formulas or cloyingly sweet Japanese milk candies. I was in a gambling mood and holy crap it paid off. This scent is gorgeous. I normally don't like soaking my face in very hot water and would keep my face out of the water until it cools, but as soon as the smell surfaces, I just had to sink myself into the water to drown myself in the scent.
It smells like milk and flowers, and somehow manages to maintain the perfect balance between the scents. It never became completely floral or completely creamy. As my nose adjusted to the smell, I also smell a note of something faintly metallic. It smells like old metal. You know that slightly salty, rusty smell you get on your hands when you rub your hands against aged metal? It's a scent some gourmands turn into and in this scent, there's just a hint of that –and it makes the entire thing smell so good.
This smell is so relaxing, I had to remind myself not to fall asleep and become a recipient of a Darwin Award. I normally get bored easily and can't stay too long in baths, but this smelled so good, I stayed in until the smell faded because I re-filled the tub too often. I didn't even read my book for the longest time, and just sat there sniffing and sniffing like I'm trying to trying to hide a runny nose at a fancy party.
TL;DR: Milk & florals
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Milkmaid Perfume Oil
"Fresh milk, clean linens, pale musk and pink sweet pea blossom."Unfortunately, I dumped this in my swap pile, and now I'm regretting it since Splendiferous ended up being so amazing after being aged for a year. This was my previous review:
Oh wow. The milk smell is extremely strong, with a heavy, musky floral smell to make it even heavier. The milk scent also smells cloyingly sweet, like those milk-flavoured candies that end up tasting play-doh-ish. I know play-doh taste salty since I wasn't a smart child, but somehow I associate that artificial milk taste with what I imagine a pastel play-doh cake would taste like. It took nearly an hour before the cloying, artificial milk scent disappears and now it smells like over-baked candied roses with a faint smell of incense and something bitter and old. Reminds me of the heady smell of entering a crowded temple in India, during a religious festival where there's barely any crowd control. It's very heavy and I'm not a fan.
TL;DR: Offerings in a very crowded temple in India.
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Ploughman Bubbling Scrub Review
"Well worn leather, dirt n' dandelions, carrot, a pinch of tobacco and a light sheen of feral skin musk."
This is freaking amazing. When I first opened the tub, I thought this was spring in a bottle. It smells like young, budding green plants and dewy, wet earth. Once you rub in on your wet skin, it's a burst of dirt, blue and leather. The combination becomes this cool (temperature, not style), sexy masculine scent. The tobacco bit is definitely not obvious in the scent, but I'm guessing it's adding to the masculine bitterness in the scent. When it washes off, the lingering scent it leaves on your skin is a bit sweeter and heavier on the blue, but overall, it's still the same sexy scent.
Seriously, this scent is just so freaking hot...and kinda naughty. Somehow, I imagine it as a scent on that one hot fling you keep going back to even though you know it'll never work, just because he's so much fun and irresistibly charming about being a terrible mistake. So charming, in fact, that you'll happily make the same terrible mistake again with 0 regrets.
Any of you watched Into The Woods? Remember Prince Charming?
That kind of guy.
My cousin and I totally fell in love with this scent. My cousin couldn't really describe why she loved it besides saying that it smells like the kind of masculine scent she likes. When I prodded her with more questions, her opinion is that if it has nicer packaging, it'll definitely pass off as a high-end soap –the kind that cost ridiculous amounts of money and you'll only get for someone as a present that says, "I don't know what the hell you like as a gift, but I have to give you something expensive, so here's a soap that costs an ungodly sum of money. You use soap, right? Right???"
TL;DR: Perfect scent for an irresistibly charming, lovable douche.
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Ruth Bubbling Scrub Review
"Fresh strawberry, green patchouli, rose geranium and crushed violet leaf."The herbal smell is definitely really, really strong. I blame the patchouli. It definitely smells clean, but I can't shake off the feeling that I'm putting on a clinical herbal salve. It's a more European herbal salve, which smells like a clean, cool sort of herbal, rather than an Asian one, which smells brown and ancient, though. The kind of herbal salves you get from an apothecary that looks like this:
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| The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum in Alexandria Image courtesy of tripadvisor.com |
I faintly smell some strawberries once I started lathering it up, but it smells like one of those medicated salves that claim to smell like strawberries, but the strawberry gave up and drowned in the medicated herbs smell after putting up a brief fight. My sister described it as, "Burnt liquorice with ethanol" after I prompted her for a better description than, "Ew! Ewwww!"
And that medicated smell lingers! I still smell it on my skin even after slathering the Mango Sticky Rice body butter all over me.
TL;DR: Herbal salve that tires to smell like strawberries.
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Selkie Whipped Soap Review
"The break of waves, gurgling sea foam, kelp, rain tinged air, sand smoothed driftwood and wild sage."Scent-wise, Selkie smells amazing. At first, I only got a strong wave of the blue smell crashing in, and I thought it smelt like the wild sea. It conjures images of high waves crashing into cliffs, sending sprays of water and earth.
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| I wonder if people actually work in that lighthouse and how frequently this happens. Stunning photography by Robben Fordecay |
Then a sandalwood scent that brings up romanticised images of old chests in forgotten attics emerges. Emphasis on romanticised...in my experience, old chests in forgotten attics usually just smell like mothballs and the various critters that called it home at some point in time.
TL;DR: Romanticized ancient wooden chest in a lighthouse by the sea.
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Splendiferous Perfume Oil
"White cake, lemon zest glaze and sugared violets"This is what I previously wrote:
First impression: I smell the lemon, but there's also that overly milky, cloying smell (what I was worried Milk would smell like). It definitely smells sugary too.
5 min in: The overly milky, cloying smell isn't so strong now. I still smell it underneath, but it's mostly a balance between the lemon and sugary violets.
15 min in: The cloying smell is back. I somehow associate this smell with play-doh, because it's what I imagine a pastel play-doh cake will taste like (I've tried eating play-doh. It's just salty).
1h in: The smell settled and it's mostly the cloying, play-doh smell & something that smells like baby powder. I barely smell the lemon now. I'm not too much of a fan of this scent, unfortunately.
3h in: The smell is still relatively strong. I can smell it wafting above my skin.
I wanted to swap this but somehow forgot to. I decided to give it another try and OHMYGOD. It's freaking amazing. The play-doh note calmed down and aged beautifully. It's still there but acts as a quiet base anchoring the scent and stopping it from going too searing. The sugared violets are in the forefront now, and the lemon pound cakes are in the background. It now smells like the cutest tea party ever. Think this is cute?
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| This is by Elena Eremina and I really recommend checking her gallery out. It'll make you want to adopt a hoard of hamsters and porcupines. |
Well, this scent is even cuter. While it smells like something you can imagine sniffing in a scene from Alice in Wonderland or an Enid Blyton book, it's so, so refined and not kiddy at all. It's definitely an elegant, grown up interpretation of a tea party (the kind socialite moms throw for their kids and wonder why all the kids are so bored, they look more stoned than a guy on his 10th joint, when they're having so much fun) and so wearable as a perfume. I can go on and on raving about this scent. Now I've made up my mind, I'm NEVER destashing any of my HoG because it may smell good a few years into the future!
TL;DR: Adorable yet refined and elegant sugared violets and lemon pound cakes.
I popped over from IMMAM, and this was a great review. I was looking to make my first bath purchase from HOG and the gifs really helped me decide what kind of texture/product I need. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I'm glad this helped!
DeleteThank you for all your excellent reviews. I'm fairly new to HoG and your reviews have helped me pick and choose scents. You have very poetic writing! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete