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See (Visit) bathandbodyfind.com for the review or read it below.
Review of Cold Processed Soaps and Matching Lotions from Friendly Fumes
by Avery, added 8/9/10
Brand: Friendly Fumes
Soap 4.5 oz., $5.00
Matching lotions: 4 oz., $6.00 & 8 oz., $10.00
Scents:
Pineapple Cilantro
Philly Nice
Blueberry Honeysuckle
Peach Gardenia
Lavender Coriander
Jasmine Grapefruit
Grapefruit Orange
If you are a fan of our sister site, Candlefind, you already know the "fragrant" folks at Friendly Fumes.
Bob, the fourth generation soap maker, (and soy candle maker) has
been hard at work mixing up new scents for the summer, and asked us to
take them for a test drive along with a few standards. Seven
"flavors" of soaps and lotions - this is a dream job!
Soaps
I tried the soap as a hand soap and in the shower. Washing my hands with Friendly Fumes soaps was not drying. Usually, I head right for the lotion after
hand-washing and I deliberately abstained and let my hands go naked
for awhile, something that I Handmade soaps usually can not handle.
While I would not always do this, this soap did not leave my skin so dry
that it was uncomfortable.
The soaps come in natural brown soap-size boxes with a clear sticker with the Friendly Fumes logo (a colorful flame) on top, and their motto: "Everybody is always stickin' their nose in our business". The side panels of the box has the name of the fragrance on one side, the ingredients on the other. The soaps slices are sealed in little cellophane bags, keeping the scents confined and non-mingling.
Lotions
Testing, I like the way Friendly Fume's lotions feel on my hands. They leave them feeling soft and moisturized, not at all greasy. I get annoyed when I have to hang out and wait for my lotion to absorb before I pick things up. Not the case here, it disappears as I rub it on. The lotion is a good consistency too - not runny, not sticky.
The lotions come in the cobalt blue bottles with the white "pop tops", and the label is tan with the fragrance name and the ingredients.
The lotions are dye-free.
I am getting anxious! Let's go try all these scents!
- Friendly Fumes are all veggie lotions, they are advertised as "luxurious, fast absorbing, non-greasy" and are available in 160 fragrances. The ingredients contain blends of certified organic aloe vera, green tea, chamomile extracts, and natural plant emollients to "soothe and protect dry, sensitive, thirsty skin". We are about to see if that is true! (I should add that there are several moisturizers on the site besides these, such as Mango butter and Unrefined Nigerian Shea butter). - Using castor oil, olive oil and shea butter, Friendly Fumes creates soaps that have a rich, and luxurious foamy lather, the kind with the silky, tiny, abundant bubbles that feel like velvet! The soap itself has a luxurious feeling when moistened. It feels slippery - and that is good! I really don't like it when a wet soap drags across my hands. My hands washed clean, no leftover residue noted - no sticky palms! Bob uses pure essential oils for fragrancing and the cold process-reduced water method to make his soap. This means the soap needs to cure, (so order early if you have deadlines)! The soap comes in several sizes, including a cute little ½ ounce tester! Bob said they tried about 28 formulas before they found the "right" soap. This guy is dedicated to his craft!
Pineapple Cilantro
"An amazingly rich and
fruity pineapple scent with just a hint of green. An exotic combination
of lime slices, pineapple chunks and orange slices with a mild spicy
twist"
Soap - (light yellow-orange, darker swirls) The soap has a mild scent that
is noticeable when I use Pineapple Cilantro it, but like many soaps,
it is not a long-term scent. But, it sure smells good when I am washing!
Lotion - This one is marked "S" for strong - just the way I like my lotions! This is a great scent, good for layering after scrubbing with the matching scent. The Pineapple is the first scent to greet your nose then that herby/green and lime follows - a good combo for those hot humid days, this scent has summer written all over it! The scent lingered for at least a half an hour.
Philly Nice
"A fresh, clean ozone type
with top-notes of bergamot, lemon, pomelo, fir and juniper berry,
followed by a spicy ginger, lavender and sage middle-note and a mossy
vetiver, sandalwood and white musk base-note". Loved by Men too!
Soap - (Natural swirled with brick red ) This is a pretty soap, it has the look of a pretty red agate rock. The scent is faint in this soap, it smells primarily clean. (Which, I suppose, is a good thing for soap!) While it is not strong to sniff, it is one of those soaps that you can smell drifting in the air Philly Nice bath and body review when it is sitting in the soap dish.
Lotion - This is where all those notes come together, and while it is clean smelling like the soap, the overall feeling of the scent is masculine to me. I like the blend, and it is hard to pick out the different scents, but I find the juniper, vetiver and bergamot to be the ones that my nose finds. Maybe some sage? Since those notes can be somewhat harsh, and this scent, while snappy, is not intense, my guess that is the musk is giving it the softness.
Grapefruit Orange
"A perfect combination of tart grapefruit and sweet orange"
Soap - (dark gold) Oh - here is a fun one! It gets Grapefruit Orange soap
and lotion review from Friendly Fumes its color from paprika - and you
can see the little rusty specks in the gold semi-transparent soap. So
cool! The scent is very light, I get mainly grapefruit with a orange
peel scent.
Lotion -This is marked as a medium scented lotion. First sniff is that grapefruit again, but then as it warms it takes a twist - it begins to smell like the orangey peels with spices like Constant Comment tea! I couldn't quit sniffing my hands - I am sure people that saw me thought I had some type of OCD disorder! This scent lasted quite awhile on my hands - at least an hour.
Blueberry Honeysuckle
"Juicy, tart, sweet, and slightly sulphuric scent of blueberries, tempered with the lilting sweetness of honeysuckle"
Soap - (medium blue) This is another nice textured soap, with a foamy lather. The scent is sweet and light.
Lotion - Yum! Just
YUM! This is a pretty neat scent if you have not tried it. I took a
sniff and thought Blueberry honeysuckle soap and lotion 
review
for bath and body find"blueberry! No... it's honeysuckle! Wait... no...
its blue... honey... well, it is a really good, complementary blend,
that's what it is!"
This one is marked Medium, and it is a good thing. This is a very sweet blend and I think that a stronger scent would be too much. For me this is good in smaller doses, and it lasted about a half hour once I applied it. If you are a sweet pea and raspberry fan, you might like the sweetness here.
Grapefruit Jasmine
"A blend of feminine jasmine and tart grapefruit"
Soap - (peachy pink) I get mainly grapefruit in my sniffs once the wrapper
is off. After it has been used, the scent is very mild - but again, I
find that to be the case in many soaps unless I re wrap them when they
dry.
Lotion - Just the opposite! I smell the Jasmine leading here, with the grapefruit preventing floral overload. It has a nice balance - it finishes somewhat spicy. This lotion is marked "strong", and over time the jasmine won out - this is the scent your little sister/niece/young daughter will steal and use when you are not looking!
Lavender Coriander
"A great fresh unisex fragrance. A very clear and clean lavender aspect, with a warm coriander base, clean and crisp"
Soap - (lavender-gray) This is the lavender that I think of when novels talk
about the lavender sachets tucked in between the embroidered
handkerchiefs. It is a quaint, 
old-fashioned
smell, and I mean that in a good way. It is not a artificial soap
scent, by any means. The scent is mild, but I can clearly smell it.
Lotion - The predominant scent is the lavender, although my nose says there is something else. It does not scream "Coriander!" however. Coriander is not common is bath and body products, (but pretty darn good in apple pie!) Some describe coriander as "lavender-like" or "pungent", and some as "sweetish and slightly bitter" in scent. It is doing a great job of mingling with its partner because this is a pleasant blend. I like the name, Lavender Coriander, as it sounds unique, and gets my curiosity up! I am a fan of lavender, so I liked this scent combination, a fresh and energizing blend. It was still mildly scenting after a half an hour.
Peach Gardenia
"Aspects of the lush, juicy fruit as well as the romantic white flower"
Soap - (tan and orange ) I really did not smell much on this soap when I
opened it - until I got it; Then there was a big burst of scent - hard
to distinguish the exact notes, but my nose said "fruity"!
Lotion - Relax... this will not make you smell like the Senior Prom! This scent is so much fun - when I applied it, the ripe peachy scent was in the forefront, but on the next whiff the spicy gardenia was what I smelled. I am not sure how Bob pulled that off - but it was so much fun sniffing this chameleon scent that I passed it out to friends so they could smell the scent changing for themselves. Moderately strong - it didn't linger as long as some of the others.
Final thoughts...
Friendly Fumes has done an exceptional job of coming up with some scents that are
summer-friendly. Most of the newest scents have a fruit n floral mix
that feels fresh and simple when the sun is beating down and you are not
in the mood for heavier scents. (We could just do a temporary hold on
the fragranced items until the temperature drops, but as scent
addicts... give up on scent completely? Never!)
It's been a long hot summer, so when you
are comfortably situated in front of the A/C and feeling a little
self-indulgent, pull up Friendly Fumes web site and check out all the
scents and products.
For those that have trouble making up their mind, Bob has you covered with Sampler Boxes.
And with flat rate shipping at $6.95 - you can order away without constantly clicking back and forth to check your shipping costs. Simple! No higher math! (I wonder if that is sorta what Gershwin meant when he wrote: "Summertime, an' the livin' is easy...")
Happy scented summer!
~ Avery
Visit Friendly Fumes
style
clear glass with a double "bump" near the base. The clear, in obtrusive
label includes their tag line: "Everybody is always stickin' their nose
in our business". On the back is a small clear sticker with the scent
name in black. I have glass lids, but you may choose other metal types."
that
I smelled. So, I tried to define what that note was that was blended
with the other spicy notes and actually, I had to admit that black
pepper turned out to be the closest scent to what I was smelling! It
will be the type of scent that your friends and family will look at you
quizzically and say "what is that scent? I know it, but I can't seem to place it". It is not for everyone, but I enjoyed the change. There really is a
note on the finish that is quite similar to sniffing your pepper
grinder, but of course the sneeze is absent.
notes
- the Friendly accents the lavender with a nice cookie chaser. Yankee's
is predominantly cookie with just a little tickle of something
different in the finish.
comforting flame while you scent your room. If you are still a melter at heart, you won't go wrong trying those either.
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