Friday, May 18, 2007

CH order - grand reopening!

I was so happy to see CH reopening back in April. Lena put all perfumes on sale for $9 so there was a feeding frenzy which caused a very long turnaround time - I waited a month to get my order, which is much longer than I've ever had to wait for CH. Still, I didn't mind as the quality is great and I was just so thrilled to see one of my favorite e-tailers open again after such a long hibernation!
I got all of these samples in the butter:
Calypso Crush - To my nose this smelled just like Tropical Fruit Slices, which I'm not fond of. Just a generic candy fruit scent, like Smarties candies. It was even worse on my skin.

Diamond Coconut - This is divine in the container - a perfect mix of a beachy, sandy coconut and a slightly more fresh one. Too bad it turned to Play-doh on me. :(

Strawberry Blonde - I smelled a nice mix of lime and strawberry in this, but on me it was strawberry-lime plastic. Oh well.

Surf Bunny - I've been letting this cure for a while now and it's still an off-chocolate scent to my nose. I'll hang onto it for a few more weeks but if it doesn't magically turn into a suntan lotion scent by then, up for swap it goes.

Tahitian Honeymoon - Eh, wasn't thrilled with this. Just a generic fruit scent with a weird banana undertone. On my skin it smelled like sour tea. :P

Tidal Wave Cooler - Disappointed in this too. On my skin it was fruity plastic.

I got a perfume sample pack:
Banana Jungle Daquiri - Really fresh and delicious in the vial and terrible on me, as usual. :P It was like old banana bread on me, LOL. It's what I would imagine a banana daquiri to smell like (I've never had one so I can't say so for sure), a mix of banana and coconut with a fruity background.

Butt Naked - Lipglossina kindly bestowed a full-size scrub in this scent and I wanted to try it in the perfume. I can't pick out any individual notes but it's sweet and fruity and tropical. I'm trying to hold off ordering this in full size creme and EdP!

Lime Freeze - Disappointed in this. It was a cleaner-ish scent with a bit of creamy fizz.

Lena kindly included samples of Hawaiian Melon Fizz (perfume) and Mango Mimosa Slushie (shea creme.) Hawaiian Melon Fizz killed me - it was a lovely fruity melony drink scent without being too sweet, but on me it turned to a weird candy scent. Definitely try this out thought if you like fruity melon scents that aren't TOO melony (I'm talking to you, BBW Melon Cooler.) Mango Mimosa Slushie was also great and it actually worked on me, so I'm debating whether to get a full size of the creme and an EdP. I smell mango but there are some other fruity/drink notes in there that make it fresher and prevent it from being plain old mango. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't resemble Sea Foam Slushie in the slightest.
Then there are some other random CH things I had lying around and finally got a chance to test out, LOL. Lipglossina had given me a sample of Cocolotus in the shea body creme a while back and it's really good! Much better than the original H2O, plus it doesn't turn on me. I don't get a lot of coconut but more of a sweet, desserty type scent with some floral. I think it may be too heavy for me though, at least in the summer, so I'll probably hold off on ordering full size. Turtle Island Breezer is sooooo good - I smell a creamy coconut with some sharp lime. Unfortunately it turned on me but I suspect it's because the sample I had is in the souffle formula, which never works on me. I'm willing to take a chance on this in the shea creme or body butter.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Another swap!

So here's the latest from my swap with lipglossina. :) It was another hugely generous swap so it took me a while to test out everything, but I think I got it all!

CYS
Carina (emollient) This is such a nice true buttercream frosting scent but on me it went musty. Definitely way better than other buttercreams I've tried (BBW, Philosophy) so give this a try if you're looking for a buttercream scent.

Lemon Marshmallow Cream (cream) - This scent makes me smile - it reminds me of Easter and going on egg hunts when I was little. You can really smell both the marshmallow and the lemon, and one doesn't overpower the other. Best of all it doesn't turn on me. I'll probably order a full size of this in the cream next year as well as an EdP! It's perfect for transitioning from winter to spring.

Coconut Marshmallow Cream (cream) Lipglossina was right - this is way better in the cream than in the emollient. It's a nice toasted coconut scent. I wouldn't get a full size though because it just went straight to marshmallow on me, and I want to try CYS's Toasted Marshmallow to see how it compares.

Coconut Marshmallow Cream (emollient) I smell the coconut more in this one, it's definitely musty and not a nice sweet coconut like it is in the cream. I can't smell the marshmallow at all so I wouldn't recommend this in the emollient.

Grapefruit Fresa (emollient) Blech. I didn't smell grapefruit or strawberry, just an off sour smell. Maybe it's better in the cream formula but in the emollient it was awful.

Vanilla Marshmallow Cream (emollient) This is lovely. I thought it was going to be too sweet (vanilla AND marshmallow!) but it's very nice. Unfortunately the vanilla turned on me and it was just an off, sickly sweet scent. :P

Lipglossina was kind enough to part with her Auntie Rhubarb Lemon Cake body cream since she knows how much I love the texture of the body creams. Oddly enough it smells very similar to CYS's Lemon Marshmallow Cream, but it has a generic sweet note instead of marshmallow. It's a lovely sweet dessert-y lemon scent. It's not as nice on my skin as the CYS but I'll definitely use it up. She also passed along a sample of IoE Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me! scrub. It was just meh for me, since it smelled like strawberry shortcake and the strawberry was very artificial to my nose. Overall it just smelled very juvenile to me - I see this as a scent for kids. Still, I'm not worried about my upcoming IoE order, I'm sure I'll like it more than that scrub. Finally, I got samples of MMU Pineapple Slices in both the Babe Cakes body icing and Body Custard formulas. I think it's a bit fresher in the body custard but there wasn't a huge difference. Also, the scent is pretty much identical to CH's Pineapple Slices, which is good to know in case, heaven forbid, CH closes!