Testing some goodies from @CandidaVirgo

A while back Candi started experimenting with creating scented products, and asked me to test a couple of perfumes for her. Never one to pass up an opportunity for new smells, I agreed eagerly. A day or so later, I received Chocolate Macaron and Cinnamon Donuts perfume oils. I've reviewed Chocolate Macaron on my perfume blog and also talked briefly about Cinnamon Donuts, so I won't say too much about them here except that I am still madly in love with Chocolate Macaron. It is such a rich, foodie chocolate scent - not too sweet, and lasts for a good few hours.

A few weeks later I got some more stuff from Candi - two more perfumes, a scrub and a massage mud. I've been testing those out a bit since.

Banana Rama perfume oil
There are two things I absolutely detest the smell of more than anything else - and I'm talking about normal, every day, allegedly inoffensive things rather than things that everyone agrees is gross like poop and garbage. Those things are tomato sauce and bananas. So I was kind of nervous even sniffing this one. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I quite liked Banana Rama. It's more lolly banana than actual banana, thankfully - but it's not even just that. It's sweet, but not sugary, and there's an element of sherbet as well - this could just as easily have been called Wizz Fizz. There is something slightly deeper that keeps it from being a complete lolly scent. I cannot put my finger on what it is. I could ask Candi, I guess, but that takes the fun away. As it dries down there is ever so slight a whiff of something lemony that comes and goes, and it's not exactly lemon in its pure form, more like a lemony plant, such as lemon myrtle. It's the vibe of lemon. I found this to be a surprisingly interesting scent, and I ended up really liking it after initially assuming I'd have a cursory test and then pass it on to Noodles.

Hot Apple Pie perfume oil
This doesn't smell so much like a genuine apple pie, rather what you think apple pies smell like (real food is always disappointingly less aromatic than you think it will be these days). It's warm and buttery and there's a top note of cinnamon that is quite strong at first but softens after a while. For years and years my mother had stewed apple and bran for breakfast so that smell of apples cooking was embedded into my childhood memories. In this perfume I can smell pastry, cooking apples, kitchen spices, and general wintery warmth. This is a great cold weather casual scent.

Poppy Scrub
Poppy seeds make a great exfoliant - who'd have thought it? This had a similar chocolatey scent to the chocolate macaron perfume, though sweeter and lighter. After about a month it started to go funky, so it might either need more preservative or be one to use in small batches and fairly quickly (like some Lush products). I used this a couple of times a week and really enjoyed it. I'm not one for harsh exfoliators - I generally only use AHA-types or occasionally the Clarisonic. However, the poppy seeds gave a decent exfoliation without feeling hard or scratchy. The product itself was rich, thick and creamy. It lathered slightly, but not a lot, and left my skin feeling really soft after, with no tightness. If Candi ever gets around to selling this stuff, I would definitely buy it.

Massage Mud
I hate massages, to the point where I am almost phobic about them - they make me feel nauseated. A couple of years ago when I had to go to the physio regularly for my wonky shoulder/arm/hips she would massage the muscles and it was the grossest, most invasive feeling I've had. And it's not that she wasn't good or wasn't doing it properly - she was. I just really, really hate massages. So I didn't get a whole lot of use out of this product other than to play around with it. I tried rubbing it all over my legs a couple of times before showering, just to see what it felt like and what it did. The base seems to be coconut oil (smells like it, anyway). It's solid but it melts immediately to an oil on contact with skin. It feels like, well, an oil - it's silky and not at all sticky. If you're a fan of massages, this would be a lovely - albeit messy - product to use. I found it washed off easily in the shower after, and left my skin feeling soft and moisturised after. There was also a faint after scent of something vaguely floral, which is interesting because I don't smell anything floral in the container. I think this would actually make a great pre-shower moisturiser. You know how a while ago I went off on one about that terrible Nivea in-shower moisturiser? Well, if it had been something like this I might have actually liked it.