Solstice Scents: Shop and Products Review.

Hi Guys. Recently I've been getting into indie brands of cosmetics and fragrances. I'm not much of a perfume person but I love essential oils and herbal light fragrances. About two weeks ago I decided I should make my first order of scents and I choose Solstice Scents as the shop to try because all the descriptions sound incredible and prices are not bad. The shop is owned by Greg and Angela and they are based in Gainesvile, FL. They sell facial toners and masks, body ganache creams,whipped soaps, bath oils and body mists, bath soaks, and perfumes.All products are hand mixed and created by them, all the names are handwritten on the bottles and they do smudge and fade as you use the oils ( I put a piece of tape over the names to protect it and it works great.) Their customer service is amazing, but more on that later.
 My first order was a full size of Cardamom Rose Sugar and a three pack choose your own sample pack with Pink Sugar, Nightgown, and Quit Night. They also include a free sample of your choice with every order and I chose Lemon Ginger Cream. Shipping was really fast and everything came securely packed.

Cardamom Rose Sugar: This is what they call a premium scent, the ingredients are more expensive, therefore the full size bottle is only 5ml, but for this type of fragrance it is plenty. I ordered this one because I love cardamom and it is pretty unusual scent. The official page description reads: "Brown Sugar, Cardamom EO, Moroccan Rose and Bulgarian Rose.A warm candy-like blend of brown sugar, spicy green cardamom pods, Moroccan rose absolute and Bulgarian rose absolute. It is luscious, sweet and very enticing. On initial application, the rose and cardamom are most apparent with the sweet brown sugar beneath. When applied liberally, the cardamom will journey with you for a good 30 minutes to an hour. The rose smells like candied rose petals. It is young and gentle - not at all a matronly rose and not an assertive and overpowering rose. It blends perfectly with the cardamom and brown sugar. After about an hour the brown sugar is predominant, the cardamom has receded and the roses are very subtle and tame. The long term dry down is primarily a sugary, warm, brown candy scent. The scent is so divine that you will want to reapply often and breath deeply! Cardamom Rose Sugar is an alluring and romantic scent that smells almost edible." I find this description very accurate. When first applied it smells just like cardamom with a hint of rose and it stays like that for a while, but when it starts drying down the smell changes to sweet rose until it smells a bit like maple syrup. I find that I can't stop smelling my wrist because it smells so creamy and delicious. My husband absolutely hates it and tells me I smell like pancakes, haha.  This fragrance lasts about 6 hours on me.

Pink Sugar:  This is one of their regular scents. Page description reads: "If you really like luscious, sweet, edible-smelling scents, this is the one for you. It smells like cotton candy & sweet melted sugar! This perfume is a dupe based off of the Aquolina Pink Sugar perfume. It is light and playful and has notes of lemon, vanilla, caramel, cotton candy, and more...Absolute heaven!"Let me say, I fell in LOVE with this scent. I can't describe how it smells, besides sweet and fresh. It is not a sticky sweet fragrance, it doesn't give me a headache or nausea. it is my favorite everyday scent. Plus, my hubby actually likes this one, when wearing it he said, "mmm, baby you smell good" and that's a win on my book because he usually hates all perfumes. I initially got this in a sample size but ended up making a second order when they restocked the full size because I loved it that much! This fragrance comes in a roller ball blue bottle that is beautiful. This fragrance lasted all day on me, I still could smell some the next day on my wrist.

Nightgown: One of their regular scents. I purchased this as a sample size. Page description reads:
"Vanilla, White Chocolate, Tuberose & Tiare Flowers.  A sensual and very creamy floral fragrance, Nightgown evokes the image of a gorgeous satin nightie with lace trim. It fits like a second skin and is the perfect attire for lounging and snuggling. This perfume is the representation of the fabric itself: beautiful, plush, sweet and delicate with white velvety petals from exotic flowers that entrance you with aphrodisiac qualities. The floral notes are very creamy, well rounded and tame while still being detectable and not too heady, sharp or perfumey. The dominant notes are a vanilla accord blended with a touch of divine white chocolate. The floral notes are present on initial application and for some time on the skin though on the long term dry down they will recede and the vanillas and white chocolate will be predominant. If you like the vanilla accord in Manor and Snowshoe Pass, it makes a striking appearance in this blend! Nightgown is wispy, innocent and mysterious at once - like feathers and a gently strummed harp." A wet sniff of this gives me flowery vanilla. It is a very cozy scent. I really like this one by itself but mixed with Cardamom Rose Sugar is even better and makes the notes on both fragrances stand out in a better way. When mixed together this combination lasted all day on me and I still could smell it pretty strongly the next day, even after a shower there was a hint of the scent left.

Quiet Night: This fragrance is out of stock at the moment so I don't have an official page description. I got this as a sample size. This is an aromatherapy scent, it is a blend of Lavender essential oil and Roman Chamomile. First let me state that I love lavander, it is my absolute favorite smell in the whole world, it just makes me happy. This smells exactly as it sounds, natural lavender, like smelling the plant, with a hint of calming chamomile. I like this for night when I can't sleep or I'm stressed out. It is amazing and calming. The only negative thing I have to say about this is that it does not last very long on the skin, it only lasted about two hour tops on my skin, but it is effective. 

Lemon Ginger Creams: I got this as a free sample included with my order. The page description reads: "Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies Filled With Vanilla-Lemon Cream. Vanilla cream filling infused with loads of bright lemon and sandwiched in between two perfectly spicy gingersnap cookies.  On cold sniff and initial application the lemon cream filling is sweet and tart tempered by the vanilla blend.  The gingersnap cookies are the perfect blend of ginger and cinnamon and pair wonderfully with the sweet cream filling.  This fragrance is uplifting and comforting.  The lemon will soften after some time on the skin as the vanilla cream filling becomes more prominent in the dry down." These people know their fragrances and this description is extremely accurate. Freshly applied it smells like a real lemon and ginger cream cookies. It dries down to ginger cream cookie, and that lasts for about 2-3 hours, and it dries down to a very mild sweet cream scent. I like this, it smells like cookies and I want to eat it! This fragrance lasts about 5 hours on my skin.

This is how they pack their orders, all the vials where wrapped in the bubble wrap pictured.

This is my first and second orders with promo material they include. 

Notice the "Thank You" messages included with each order. Hand written. I love it.

Now for their customer service. As I fell in love with pink sugar, and I couldn't find the full size on their web site I asked them via their Facebook page if it was discontinued or just out of stock. They replied really fast and told me it was just out of stock and it should be back in a week or so. The day before it came in stock they send me a Facebook message letting me know that they would have it in stock either that day or the following day. The following day, as soon as they listed it on the site, they notified my and added a link to it so I could find it faster. I placed my order at 3:00pm, at 3:20pm I got a shipping notification email, 20 minutes after placing my order! Two days later my package was here! It was amazing!!! 

On my second order I purchased a full size Pink Sugar and samples of Sandalwood Vanilla, Lavender Vanilla, Dragon's Blood and Hand of Darkness was my free sample. I'm testing out Lavender Vanilla at the moment and will have a review of this fragrances later on. 

Thank you for sticking with me through this very long post, I hope it was informative. If you have any ideas or would like to see a review on a specific product just comment below and I'll do my best!