Yummy Yummy Spiced Berries

Spiced Berries--December's SOTM

Well, curse my nose!  I have had the most outrageously bad allergies this fall that trotted themselves out in full force following a head cold that Miss Elf gave me.  Most of the time, I can't smell a darned thing except for a brief couple-hour window after I take my allergy pill.  It has gotten so bad, I've encased my pillows in allergen covers, have been vacuuming every two days in my bedroom (WHAT????), and have ordered an air purifier.  This from a gal who spent the majority of her life completely allergy-free; now it seems I'm allergic to everything, from cats to soy candles to dust mites.  My allergist tells me she sees women in three phases of life: puberty, pregnancy, and menopause.  Apparently hormonal change times are big allergy times!  Who knew?  And, while I'm not quite at menopause yet, my hormones are quite definitely in the big flip-flop stage, so it all makes sense.  But it sure is messing with my sniffer. 

In fact, when I first melted Spiced Berries, I was pretty sure it had zero throw.  So disappointing.  But, then I took an allergy pill and came downstairs an hour later and was greeted by the most delightful berry/woodsy/spicy scent.  YUM!  Delicious!   Some on the Scentsy forums have compared Spiced Berries to Autumn Stroll, but I must vehemently object!  I find Autumn Stroll to be a perfumey-disgusting mess of a scent--one I'm compelled to toss after an hour of putting it in a warmer.  Others have compared it to the much-criticized Comfort & Joy.  Now, I'm one of the few who loves Comfort & Joy--but it is a strong cedar scent with a touch of spice, and I can see why one might not care for that. And I don't really think the two smell alike.   Spiced Berries is a well-balanced woodsy-spice scent that really opens up with fruitiness when warmed.  The scent notes don't list cinnamon, but I could swear there is a dab of it in there.  This is the type of scent that evokes Christmas, and it is going to enjoy a place next to my other Christmas faves--Christmas Cottage, Winter Pine, Cozy Fireside, Clementine Clove, and now, Spiced Berries.

Now, to be fair, I'm still not sure of Spiced Berries lasting power.  My nose lasting power is lacking.  So, I'll only be rating on scent this edition, and apologies about that! 

Spiced Berries Scent Rating:     9


And now, I'm re-posting last year's Thanksgiving Wish for you all:

May Blessings and Gratitude Fill Your Life Year 'Round!

Have a wonderful holiday with family and friends this Thanksgiving.

After much self-debate, I have elected not to participate in offering Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. I have personally boycotted Black Friday for many years now, not just because of the shopping aspect, but because how ugly it many times becomes...with tramplings and near-riots--and all over the acquisition of material goods! Now, many stores are opening earlier and earlier, meaning retail workers will unnecessarily need to leave home in the middle of the night to sell us stuff.

Now, I love my "stuff" as much as the next guy or gal.. I feel blessed to live in a country where we are fortunate enough to afford material comforts, needs, and yes, wants! I am grateful for our essential workers, like police, firemen, transportation personnel,and medical workers who MUST work on holidays.

But, it seems to me that when we, as a culture, start pushing people out of the way to get a bargain on a material good, we have fallen a bit. And I just can't participate. My shopping can wait another few days. I hope yours can, too.

I do try to offer sweet Scent Review deals throughout the year, so hopefully you don't have to rush around on Friday to get your Scentsy : )    

In the meantime, Happy, Happy Thankgiving!

Cinnamon Vanilla and A Little Birthday Wish

Happy 21 Maura!!

This sweet beauty is my youngest...turning 21 today.  This is the little peanut who came dashing into the world three weeks early in just an hour and a half of labor--a tiny perfect peanut at 5 lbs 13 oz.  She was such a sweet baby that we didn't anticipate the little spitfire toddler she would become, the result, I'm certain of a lot of big thoughts going on in that head.  Maura is our right-brained left-handed artiste who excels both academically and artistically (both music and fine art).  She has been a huge blessing and an occasional challenge for her two very left-brained parents.  But she is such a joy, with such insight, intelligence, and style, that she has so very often given me a new perspective on life.   Her dad and I are so thrilled to welcome her to official adult by wishing

A Very Happy Birthday, Maura!

 

 

and on to the review:

Cinnamon Vanilla

Cinnamon Vanilla has been around Scentsyworld a while, but I have to confess, I haven't tried it until this fall.  I love cinnamon scents.  I love vanilla scents.  Unfortunately, I am not wild about cinnamon and vanilla together.  That said, this is a perfectly acceptable cinnamon vanilla, and I sell a fair amount of it.  The vanilla is a sweetish, smooth cooking vanilla, with a bit of mild cinnamon sprinkled over.  It isn't particularly complex, being exactly what it purports to be.  It has good throw and really good lasting power.  It just isn't my thing, however, it doesn't repulse me either. 

 

If you are a cinnamon-vanilla fan, it is definitely one you will want to add to your stash.  I can see this as being extremely cozy on a cool fall or winter day.

 

Scent Rating (personal preference)               6

Scent Throw                                                  9

Scent Lasting Power                                     9

 



Clementine Clove

Scent Lots??

One thing I've found remarkable with Scentsy is the consistency of scent in their bars.  However, Clementine Clove just may challenge that consistency for me.  There appear to be two distinct "varieties" of CC, which I'll describe later, that has made me more aware of the issue.

It shouldn't surprise you that besides scented wax, I'm also a huge perfume fan.  In the perfume world, it is well known that perfumes can be different between production lots, due to the nature of the ingredients, some of which are natural and some of which are manufactured.  I can only imagine it would be the same with fragrance used to scent other things...like wax.  Scentsy does use both natural and manufactured scent, so it really surprises me that, up until now, I really haven't noticed a huge variation in scent among bars!

Clementine Clove is the exception.   It is supposed to be "a bright medley of aromatic citrus with clove and a hint of balsam." When I (finally) received mine this month a little later than usual, I popped in cubes from the first bar I came to in all my downstairs warmers.  Melted, it was an okay orange with a hint of spice that, unfortunately, was impossible to detect by dinnertime.  Not impressed.

However, I went to the Scentsy forums to check up on the reviews there and found that many peeps were finding Clementine Clove to be really strong on balsam.  One gal commented that there seem to be two Clementine Cloves---one an okay, light citrus, and the other a really long-lasting orange balsam.  Light bulb moment!  I dashed upstairs to my Scentsy room (yes, confession time--I actually have a whole room dedicated to Scentsy) and sniffed every last bar.  Out of the 9 remaining bars, 7 were a really wonderful orange balsam and the other two---meh, sad citrus spice--nothing even close to the likes of Mandarin Moon.

Well!  That was a game changer.  I immediately grabbed a bar of the balsamy CC and popped in the downstairs plug in warmer.  It wasn't long before I was greeted with the scent of Christmas---the lush balsam in the tree, clove oranges adorning the mantle (gently warmed by a glowing fire in the fireplace).  Sigh...really nice.   Evergreen scents are among my favorites this time of year, and this one is lovely.  Both the throw and the lasting power are huge, which is satisfying.  If you like citrus and/or evergreen scents, this one is most definitely a must-buy.  Mister and Maura were unimpressed with my first melting, but really liked the second, and the older girls were wild about the bars (heavy on balsam) that I gifted them.

I do hope Scentsy gets a handle on the consistency issue with this one--hopefully the first production run was just a little weak and the later lots are like most of my bars.  For now, I'll just pop in a little Winter Pine with my weaker remaining two bars, and then remain optimistic that future orders will be as pleasing  as the majority of bars I received.

So, the scent ratings for Clementine Clove:

Scent Rating:        8
Scent Throw:      10
Scent Last:         10