Celeste Savon Bath & Beauty Products

My Celeste Savon package arrived a week ago! It was securely packed, but I was sad to open it and find some Styrofoam packing peanuts. Those things never break down, they’re like infinitesimal tumbleweeds (that would be a good band name, wouldn’t it?) The newspaper that the candle was wrapped in would be a good packing choice! If you don’t have a subscription to a newspaper, I find that old newspapers are easy to find at the end of the day in waiting rooms, recycling bins—urban hunting and gathering is fun. ;)

Enough about the packing, on to the good stuff! The products I received free for review (and my impressions of them) are:

Black Canyon bath salts--these aren't currently listed on the CS website, but in the tube they smell very nice! There's no measurements on the packaging; I estimate it to be around 1.5 ounces. It's a resiny smell, a pleasant mix between amber and musk. I poured half of the tube into a warm bath, they dissolved easily but the scent wasn't very noticeable in the bath and I didn't notice any effect on my skin.

7 oz Egyptian Amber candle--I took a sniff of the candle as soon as I unboxed it, and the Egyptian Amber is an absolutely wonderful smell. I tend to prefer woody, resinous scents overall so naturally I immediately lit the candle to see how strongly it would scent the room. Our living room is fairly large; I burned the candle for about five hours while I went outside to tend the garden. When I came back inside, I didn’t smell the candle until I stepped into the living room, and the scent was mild. I expected it to be stronger since the soy wax had a strong scent, but I think the openness of our living room probably helped to dissipate the smell. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, some people prefer a mild hint of scent in the air. I just think that when it comes to earthy resin scents such as amber, I want to perfume my surroundings with a thick, luxurious haze of it. ;) This particular candle is at this point not listed on the CS website, but there is a 26 ounce version listed here. Edit: The owner, Rachel, has advised me that the 26 ounce candle would be more likely to put a lot of scent into my large living room and that the 7 ounce candles are more effective for bathrooms and other small spaces.

Chocolate Raspberry Soap Bar--oh my goodness!! This soap is absolutely huge, and for $10! I'm not particularly a fan of food-based scents, but this soap is so pretty with its heart and glitter. :) I gave it to one of my best friends for Valentine's Day, she loves choco-raspberry scent so it worked out wonderfully!

See? Huge!!

Hazelnut Cappucino Cupcake Soap--this soap is so darling! It's not currently listed on the CS website, but I'm particuarly tantalized by the sweet pea-scented cupcake soap. The soap is the size of an actual cupcake with sprinkles, and is packaged in a plastic wrapper tied with curly ribbon. So very cute! Rachel writes on the CS page for the cupcake soaps that the top can be used as a sugar scrub, so after photographing the soap I popped the cute whipped top off of the bottom soap part (it wasn't very difficult and the sugary top didn't crack apart). The soap is a good size for a hand soap, but it didn't actually lather very well when I washed my hands with it. The sugar-top provides a nice fine-grained exfoliation, I find it easiest to hold it by the "whips" and use the flat bottom side to gently scrub my skin.

Solid Facial Lotion--The solid lotion smells very nice, it has a light rose scent. Its texture is pretty waxy, I intend on experimenting with several different ways of warming it and applying it. The first night I tried it I warmed it between my palms and then applied the lotion bar directly to my face, moving it across my cheeks, nose and forehead. It felt waxy and had a bit of drag across my skin as I applied it. It didn’t rub into my skin very well, I just let it be and it eventually melted into my skin about an hour or so later. I’m going to try some other way to apply it that might yield better results.

Organic Ylang Ylang & Tea Tree Oil Face Soap--This facial soap smells lovely and cleaned my bare skin well. I plan on testing it out again after a night out on the town to see if it removes makeup effectively. My skin felt the slightest bit dry after using the facial soap but again, I’m not sure how much that has to do with the dry, cold winter air. This soap is not currently listed on the CS website.

Frankincense & Myrrh soap--I immediately fell ass-over-ears in love with the frankincense & myrrh soap because it has a lovely gold sheen all over it! It’s some sort of fine shimmery dust (edit: it's mica!) and it just makes the soap look lovely, gilded and Biblical (get it? Gold, frankincense & myrrh. Ha!). The gold does come off on your fingers, I’m wondering if bathing with the frankincense-myrrh soap wouldn’t leave a nice gold sheen on the skin? I look forward to finding out! This soap is currently not listed on the CS website because it is seasonal to the winter holiday season. So mark your calendars and keep an eye out! ;)

Sandalwood-Honey Sugar Scrub Soap--This bar also has a hint of the golden shimmer dust on the top edge of the slice! It has a scrubby side and a smooth side, and the sandalwood scent is present but not too strong on the skin. It lathers up so richly! It left my skin feeling very clean; my skin tends toward dryness in the wintertime so I’m not sure if the slight dryness on my arms is due to the soap or to my neglecting lotion. I’ll use this soap again after the Mississippi humidity returns so I can more adequately assess how drying it is to the skin. This product is currently unavailable on the CS website.

Peppermint Lip Balm--This lip balm is wonderful! Before I even opened the package, I was pleased that the Celeste Savon lip balm contains no petroleum products. The texture is very creamy and luxurious and lasts on the lips! The peppermint essential oil makes the lip balm smell nice and feel even nice with a slight minty tingle on the lips. If there’s one product I would recommend straight out of the gate, it’s this one! Note, it doesn’t have any flavoring in it. Edit: OHMYGOD THERE'S A PINK VERSION I WANT IT I NEED IT. Colored by beet root powder! Quite naturale, I absolutely cannot wait to order it and review it in another post. :)

Sugar Cookie & Pumpkin wax melts--these wax melts smell very nice in the package, but once I popped one square of the pumpkin wax into the warmer, I didn't smell it as strongly. I haven't had a chance to test the Sugar Cookie scent yet, but the sugar cookie smelled stronger in the package so it might be able to put out more scent once it melts.