If you still need to come up with a gift for Mother’s Day, you’re running out of time! Here are a few more scented gift ideas:
From Laduree, scented candles in Caramel au beurre salé…
Malie Organics Plumeria Organic Body Cream ~ scented body products
Malie Organics (formerly known as Malie Kauai) is based on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, known as “the Garden Isle,” and its products draw their inspiration and their ingredients from the dense vegetation of Kauai’s rainforests. “Malie” is Hawaiian for “calm, serene, tranquil,” and the company places a lot of emphasis on the natural origins and aromatherapeutic benefits of its various skincare, bodycare, and home fragrance items.
This Body Cream’s formula includes familiar ingredients like aloe vera, chamomile, and jojoba seed oil, as well as more characteristically Hawaiian extracts of coconut, kukui seed, and awapuhi ginger. It’s available in four fragrances: Coconut Vanilla, Koke’e, Mango Nectar, and Plumeria. According to Malie, all the scents are created through a hydrosol distillation process, capturing the “spirit” of the local botanicals. Plumeria, also known as frangipani, is a flower prized for its fragrance and traditionally used in Hawaiian leis…
Fragrance gifts for Mother’s Day 2010, part 3
For the mom who loves figs (uh, that would be me!), Diptyque’s Philosykos Addict Coffret: “The Coffret contains a Philosykos eau de toilette (50ml), Philosykos scented shower gel and body lotion (both 2.5 fl oz each), a Philosykos scented soap (3.5 oz) and a travel candle in Figuier (2.4oz).” $135 at Luckyscent…
Hot cocoa: a roundup of chocolate-scented body products for winter 2010
I’ve never referred to myself as a “chocoholic.” I enjoy chocolate, but I’m an equal-opportunity sweets lover, and I’m usually more likely to seek out cookies or ice cream or a really good piece of apple pie than a cocoa-based dessert. Today, however, I rounded off my lunch with a slab of chocolate cake. I think the last long weeks of winter have finally gotten to me. In this spirit of unexpected cravings, I’ve rounded up a handful of chocolate-fragrance body products for your delectation.
I’m fond of Villainess’ vaguely steampunk aesthetic, not to mention its range of unusual scents. Its Dulces en Fuego (“fire candies”) blend mixes cocoa with cinnamon and black pepper and a touch of musk. The dense, sugar-based Smooch! Warming Body Scrub actually does seem to give off heat when it’s first applied to the skin, and the matching Dulces en Fuego soap (shown above) looks dangerously dark before it foams. The scent of Dulces en Fuego reminds me of the tiny cups of rich, spiced “Aztec” chocolate served at Mariebelle in New York, although it probably doesn’t taste as good…
Kiehl’s Coriander Gently Exfoliating Body Scrub and Deluxe Hand & Body Lotion ~ scented body products
In general, I feel ambivalent about Kiehl’s and its products. The company has managed to sustain an impressive degree of its old-New-York, neighborhood-apothecary image (“Since 1851”) despite having been acquired by L’Oreal in 2000. Since then, however, its ever-expanding product range has started to seem diffuse and inconsistent, and the products themselves are often over-priced and not nearly as nature-based as they sometimes claim to be. Still, I keep going back for Kiehl’s Coriander-scented body products; I’ve been hooked on this fragrance for over five years, and I haven’t found anything to replace it.
Kiehl’s Gently Exfoliating Body Scrub is a relatively recent addition to the line, but it’s one of the newer products that I enjoy; it’s conveniently packaged in a flip-top tube, and it has a lightly-foaming formula with small exfoliating particles that feel pleasantly scrubby, but not scratchy. The Deluxe Hand & Body Lotion with Aloe Vera & Oatmeal is actually fairly lightweight, so if you have seriously dry skin, you’ll need something more concentrated. Both products are packed with the sorts of ingredients that I normally try to avoid when possible: sulfates and plastics in the scrub, silicones and parabens in the lotion, many mysterious multi-syllabic chemicals in both…