Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Bathing Garden Haul and Review

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBathingGarden

The goods:



TLDR: Pleasure to deal with Shannon, Lightening fast tat (3bd) and shipping, wonderful products, nommy scents and heaps of freebies. :)

Long Version, see below.


Tarts


All of these are cold sniff reviews. :)
Pistachio Almond Pudding - This scent is a yummy blend of sharp almond, sweet pistachios, and cake!
--This is pretty heavy on the almond and its very creamy and sweet. This scent is the reason I placed my order. I just HAD to have it! Definitely worth ordering, possible reorder.
1 cube, hot throw is throwing to the other end of the house!!! This is very rare. I think there have been at most, four others that have done this, 2 of them were from PFS and one Aunti Di's. Color me impressed!

The Masquerade - Inspired by my love of Carnival...I bring you a wax tart with bubbling champagne, grapefruit, orange zests, and peppery tangerine; middle notes of strawberries, apples, pears, rose petals and jasmine; with sexy bottom notes of vetiver, white musk, and ylang ylang.
--Wonderfully clean and fresh smelling! I get citrus, but its light and not overpowering. I do get the middle and bottom notes kind of as a blend all together. I think those are what add the soft clean feeling to this scent. I love it!

Parisian Strawberry Fields - Running through the countrysides of Paris you will find the most succulent strawberries ever. This tart is a blend of juicy, fresh strawberries, tropical white peaches, succulent mango fruit, and rich vanilla beans.
--This smells like juicy ripe strawberries dipped in sugar. Sooo yummy! Had I known this, I'd have gotten a scrub in this one too. My gosh it smells good enough to bite! When I stop and try to pick out the single notes mentioned its really difficult to, because I keep smelling that sugared strawberry right in front of my nose, ready to have a bite of it. I can smell the peach/mango and perhaps the vanilla. This is so perfectly blended though, its really tough to pick those out and I would have no idea they were there if it wasn't listed. This is a reorder if it throws well when warmed.

Lavender Martini - Mouth watering martini scent blended with 100% lavender essential oil. Topped with a piece of pretty purple glass and little sparkling flowers.
--my tart's design looks quite a bit different from her photo, but I think it is lovely all the same. It smells absolutely wonderful. Its like a really fruity lavender if that makes any sense. I have not ever smelled anything quite like this. Its citrusy and tart, but I cannot figure out which citrus fruit. Maybe a blend of a few? I get an awesome lavender scent as the middle note and that velvety-like scent of lavender as the bottom. Truly unique, if you're a lavender lover or citrus lover I suggest you try it. I think you'll love it!

Pink Pomegranate - A sparkling, bright pomegranate having a tart citrus note and ending with complex woody notes. Topped with a pretty pink flower. This one is beautiful!
--It really is a beautiful scent, but for me its very sweet up front, a lot like pink sugar. I smell citrus, but its very soft and creamy and I'm not smelling a woody note. Perhaps hot melting it will change, but I absolutely adore how it smells! Right now, I'd put this in the foody/gourmand range rather than fruit. Can't wait to melt this one!

Cranberry Fig - This scent is my personal favorite! Super strong and amazing all year long. The tart bite of Cranberries and the sweet, mild allure of Fig. Cranberries and Figs are made even more striking by adding a smattering of Blood Orange and Pink Grapefruit notes to the mix.
--I remembered her saying that this was her favorite as soon as I saw the iridescent heart shaped glitter on the top! I really like this scent as well and think it would be a great scent for when company is over. Its not too sweet, not too bright. Its very inviting and almost warm, yet the citrus notes perk it up into a happy scent too. I can see why its Shannon's favorite! I am going to share some of this one with my mom too, I think she will love it!





Scrubs:

All the scrubs seem to be moisturizing but not greasy or oil slicky at all. They do contain some butters like shea or aloe, so I can definitely see why my skin feels moisturized after using them. I also noticed that with the two I tried out, the scent lingered on my hands and was noticable. This is the first bubbling scrub that I have noticed this with! Pretty awesome! Speaking of bubbles, they're there but they are scarce. This is more of a creamy lotiony kind of scrub, but not greasy at all. I don't know how she did it! Its unusal compared to my other scrubs, that's for sure, and I quite like it!



Pistachio Almond Pudding - This scent is a yummy blend of sharp almond, sweet pistachios, and cake!
--just as awesome smelling as the tart! So sweet, yet has that creaminess that nuts have. The scrub is a gorgeous color of green topped with little green pearls.



The Masquerade - Inspired by my love of Carnival...I bring you a wax tart with bubbling champagne, grapefruit, orange zests, and peppery tangerine; middle notes of strawberries, apples, pears, rose petals and jasmine; with sexy bottom notes of vetiver, white musk, and ylang ylang.
--same as the tart, wonderfully clean smelling! Tried this one on my hands too, and the scent is lingering after washing! woohoo! She mixed a colorful blend of jojoba beads throughout the scrub and then topped it with more! A fun little party in a jar! :D This was a custom request, but she has listed two more jars of this scrub in her shop!



A Spoonful of Sugar - This scent is almost spot on for LUSH Snow Fairy. Sweet, sugary, and absolutely wonderful!!
--I have never smelled Lush's version but I have sniffed MCS and CFTKRs and they all smell just like this one! I love how it smells so much! I tested this on my hands and the scent was there after I washed. Awesome sauce! This scent is always giong to be a little special to me. The MCS scrub I got in it, was the first big scrub I purchased online and I loved it!



Bubbling Butter Brew - My interpretation of Harry Potter's Butter Beer. Sweet clotted cream, salted caramel, rich butterscotch, and a touch of bubbling cream soda. Not only does it smell divine but the aloe butter makes this scrub feel amazing on your skin too!
--Teresa, you will love this! I can smell every scent note she mentions singly, and when I'm not looking for the single notes it smells simply delicious! I get the salty caramel, the cream, the bubbles, the butterscotch - it smells just like the cupcakes I baked! :) And now I'm off to hunt down a spoon. kidding! This scrub is topped with little pearls and teeny white jojoba beads. Love those jjbeads! :D



Guava & Raspberry Supreme - A bottom layer of fresh raspberry is topped with a succulent layer of guava. Love, love, love this one!!
--Me too!! :D Someone at MUA suggested this would be great in a scrub (was that L?), so I made note of it and finally ordered. So thank you very much whomever you were, you were right. Its freaking awesome! So fruity and bright, with just the right amount of tartness. The raspberry smells real and the guava smells sweet just like the juice I drank for breakfast on my first day visiting Hawaii. Done in split side by side style, the scrub has tiny red jojoba beads blended throughout and sprinkled on top! :D



All freebies:
Cherry Blossom Kiwi and Green Tea - This beautiful sugar scrub weighs over 8 ounces and is full of skin loving ingredients. I have added shea butter as well as ground green tea and rose petals. The bottom layer is scented in green tea. The top pink layer is scented with Kiwi and Cherry blossom and is sprinkled with rose petals.
--I was really surprised by this one, as its not my typical scent choice. However; it smells really lovely! And just look at how beautiful it is! Topped with rose petals and all! Very girly, softly sweet and feminine. The green tea layer is underneath and so I'm wondering if it smells different than what I'm smelling on top. I'm sure I'll like it too though! I love the colors, and I can see those big sugar crystals on the top too. I am so glad she sent this, because I wouldn't have ordered it myself. So very pretty and lovely smelling!




Nantucker Briar Bake Shop - These wax tarts are topped with cute little bakery pieces and sprinkled with cinnamon.
This manages to smell like an exotic bake shop with notes of butter, almond, mandarin orange, lemon, herbaceous lime, and pineapple with nutty notes, maple, clove, cinnamon, spicy berry notes, sage, lavender, jasmine, and ozonic notes, with a dry down of creamy vanilla coconut, amber woods, cedar leaf, cedarwood, sandalwood, and exotic musks.
--This was on my list of possibles when I was narrowing and it got bumped. I'm so happy that Shannon included it as a freebie. I really really like it! I don't get cinnamon on cold sniff at all, which is super awesome and makes Jen happy. :) It really does smell like a bakery that makes everything from fruit tarts, to chocolate ganache cake and coffee. Creaky wooden floors and tropical themed birthday cakes. Oh look! Oatmeal raisin cookies and fresh bread too! Loving this one for sure! :D

Very generous piece of Blue Hawaiian soap, golden sandy top and turquoise blue ocean bottom (forgot to put it in the photo!)

six assorted mini tarts, no idea what scent they are but they smell good, and are quite cute! I get a coffee note, a creamy vanilla, perhaps an almond note and something fruity. :D

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