Haus of Gloi

I blame London Make Up Girl, as I do for so many things.  This time, and don't ask me how she's done it, the bewitching creature that she is, she's actually converted me to body lotion.

But not just any body lotion, specifically it was her review of the Samhain scents of pumpkin butter and perfume oils from Haus of Gloi that made me think about giving body lotion, well, cream, really, a try.  I tried them a couple of months ago - in  the same scent - and loved them.  Really unusual scents, and a glorious range of products.  I got the bathing dust, pumpkin butter, and bubbling scrub in sample sizes to try, and kind of fell in love.

The major reason I don't really use body oils, creams, butters or lotions is because I don't really suffer from dry skin, once or twice a year I'll get a scaly shin (or two) from shaving but that's about it, so I use body lotions, creams, oils, butters, moisturisers, emollients, etc as an extension of my perfume routine, which is why finding exotically scented body products (etc) is important to me.  If it's not scented, I'm not interested!

Luckily for me, the scents at Haus of Gloi are amazing, and different.  Following my success with the earthy, leafy, almost incense-y Samhain (now discontinued, sorry!) I ordered sample sizes of most of the Yuletide scents and they arrived recently, out of the three I ordered, two I love, and one ... well, one I don't like.  At all.  But hey!  Two out of three ain't bad.  Allegedly.

I'll start with Snow Wolf, Haus of Gloi say:

Bristling and prowling, lonesome and haunting. Three howling firs, white frankincense, vanilla bean husk, tainted by droplets of blood cedar.

Simply put, this smells amazing.  Peppery-spicy, woody and rich with not even a slight hint of sweetness (I can't pick up the vanilla at all), this is a scent perfect for winter, it's highly unusual, almost masculine, and it's something I want to wear every single day.  Oddly, for a spicy scent, it doesn't seem "warm" at all, I think it's because so many spicy scents are based around cinnamon, and clove, that this seems very "clean" for a spicy scent, and is all the better for it.

Hearth.  Haus of Gloi say:

The warm glowing center of any home. Autumns last apple pickings, warm bread, orange rind, various fire roasted nuts, cracked black pepper all nailed down by an oozing sticky benzoin

 In the jar this smells of ginger cake, almost.  Sadly, on my skin, I can't bear it.  At ALL.  It's sticky, sweet and just too food-y.  And something in the formulation clashes with my skin chemistry meaning I want to just scrub the damn stuff off as quickly as possible!  However, I know some people love this scent, so this is just me.  I can totally see it working on other bodies, this is purely my being a bit sensitive to one of the ingredients.  Which one, I don't know, sadly!

Eggnoggin':  What Haus of Gloi say:

The Haus 'nog! Cream, sugar and a shot of dark rum topped with fresh grated nutmeg.
 

I should hate this.  Technically, it's more or less everything I dislike in a scent, creamy, sweet and a little indistinct.  However, I don't. I love it.  Alongside the warm, creamy sweetness is just a tiny hint of spice (from the nutmeg) and the scent all together on my skin is dazzling.  It's one of those perfumes you wear just for yourself, occasionally sniffing random parts of yourself to remind you how good you smell.  I love it.

The formulas of the products are good too.  The pumpkin butters are an amazing texture, thick and creamy but almost immediately absorbed by the skin, and they perfume your skin beautifully.  I'm also a fan of the bubbling scrubs, despite not having any dry skin in need of exfoliating (don't hate me, I neglect it terribly you know!) they're almost solid, and don't go runny until you actually are exfoliating with them, and this makes them much easier to use than traditional sugar or salt scrubs.  I just wish they hadn't discontinued the bathing dusts!  I think a jacuzzi full of Eggnoggin' would be huge fun!

I've just ordered full-size backups of both Snow Wolf and Eggnoggin' pumpkin butters, bubbling scrubs and perfume oils.  That's how much I love them.  Hearth, however is going to languish on the shelf until I find someone to give it to.... Haus of Gloi?  Haus of Joi more like ...