Fall and Winter Collection Updates, Home Fragrance and Website

Hi guys, I hope everyone is having a nice weekend! I've had a few convos recently asking how long my Autumn Collection will be up and questions about the Yule offerings.

Autumn goods will be up until 10/31. If I have enough stock I will try to carry some things beyond this date but anything sold out will remain as such after 10/31. I am considering making Lace Draped Spectre and Shoikan Grove a part of the general catalog offerings as well. Harvest Moon will continue to be available year round as a PERFUME; the other Harvest Moon items will be taken down until next year.

I'm trying to roll out the Yule collection toward the end of the month. Several of last year's products will be making a return. Some fragrances you will see for sure are below.

THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS IN WHICH THESE SCENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ARE TO BE ANNOUNCED AT A LATER DATE:
















BLACK CHRISTMAS BAR SOAP:

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way

Yet what the shadows bring
Are wolves with fierce appetites
Circling while we sing
There will be blood tonight

Black Christmas is not a soap full of jovial laughter and merry wishes. It is not tinsel, mulled cider and sweet baked goods. It is the still, miserably cold winter night. Desperate, horrified and vulnerable: your sleigh stuck in an embankment, hungry prowling wolves catch the scent of your fear. A low growl issued from a distance not far away sends you scrambling for cover, yet you can never hope to out run them and survive.

Primarily scented with bayberry and spruce, Virginia cedarwood is not far behind and clove lies in wait in the background. A few drops of orange are added to the blend, but not readily detectable, like a stalker in the shadows. This soap is for the strong, brazen and wholly fearless individual. The meek and timid should remain hidden under the covers. Infused with pure black activated charcoal and crimson glitter.


SWEET SNOW:

An icy breeze cuts through the air in the chill hours just before dawn. The trees are barren of their foliage and a doe stands poised on a bed of fluffy white velvet snow in a sheltered copse of trees not far from the frozen lake in front of you. Small white puffs fall from the awakening sky and shimmer in the weak morning light, landing softly at your feet. Sweet snow is a fresh, cold, ozonic and soft peppermint snuggled next to a sweet and creamy vanilla. A shimmer of dawn's subtle light rests atop this lovely creamy white soap, subtly shifting its iridescence as you move the soap in front of the glow of a warm hearth or candle light.

A quintessential holiday fragrance, nothing helps usher winter in more than a refreshing peppermint soap.

SPIKED NOG & NUTMEG: Offered last winter in bar soap, perfume, turbinado sugar scrub and lotion, this scent will be available again in a few select products. I am not sure if bar soap will be one of them because the fragrance morphed the color of the soap into a bizarre hot pink. So if bar soap is offered again, it will probably have to be a very dark shade and not the creamy egg nog color that it was last year.

Spiked Nog and Nutmeg is a blend of delicious creamy egg nog, a wee splash of rum, cinnamon and a few sensible drops of Nutmeg essential oil. Just like egg nog, it is not too sweet, but just enough to give this fragrance depth and body. Absolutely delicious and smells pretty close to the real thing!


KRAMPUS (offered in Bar Soap only):

Sei nur brav und niemals keck
Dann der Krampus schaut um’s eck

Be only well-behaved and never saucy,
(for) the Krampus is looking around the corner.

The Krampus is St. Nick's dark and menacing companion.
The word Krampus originates from the German Word ‘krampen’, meaning claw. While St. Nick visits the well-behaved children and bears presents, the ghastly satyr-like Krampus seeks out those children who have been naughty and flails them with his birch switch.

The Krampus soap is a luster grey-black soap scented in, what else? Sweet Birch Essential Oil. Birch has a very wintergreen like scent, sweet, minty, refreshing. It is generously scented and a lovely companion to the peppermint soaps offered this time of year.

******IMPORTANT NOTE***** This soap contains Sweet Birch Essential Oil which may have a cooling effect on the skin of sensitive individuals. Do a test spot before using all over, especially in "sensitive" areas.

ROASTED CHESTNUTS & MARSHMALLOW: This is seriously one of those that you want to take a taste of. The scent of soft, slightly nutty roasted chestnuts and a faint wisp of sweet spice coupled with creamy fluffy marshmallows. Mouth watering. Offered last year as a turbinado sugar scrub.

BAYBERRY: In Colonial times, candles were made from the wax of Bayberries as a favorably scented alternative to tallow. It was tiresome work as it took pounds of berries to yield just one pound of wax. Bayberry is a traditional element of the Yule and Christmas celebrations. It is not a coniferous plant, yet it smells of pine alongside subtle sweet berry notes, without the sharp top notes of pine oil. Bayberry smells of winter and is a wonderful fragrance to have in your home for the holidays. Light a Yule log, huddle near the hearth and use your Bayberry soap on Solstice Night!

SPICED CRANBERRY & SPRUCE (most likely bath salts and whipped soap only): Tart plump sugared cranberrys with a whimsical wisp of spice in the background and a soft and subtle Spruce Essential Oil combine to bring a very wintery holiday blend to you this year. I wanted to soften and enrich the sweet and tart cranberry fragrance and I think the spruce really adds a nice depth to the fragrance. A unique fragrance to enhance your Winter Season.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES & VANILLA CREAM: Bakery notes of molasses, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla bean coupled withNutmeg and Cinnamon. A delicious scent to warm your spirit and senses through the cold winter nights.

RICE PUDDING & RUM SOAKED RAISINS: Warm rice pudding with a toasty slightly buttery scent coupled with soft spices, a little brown sugar, a pinch of vanilla and just a tiny hint of spiced rum soaked raisins. A comforting dish for cozying up next to hearth.

I'm also considering offering the CEDAR & SIBERIAN FIR fragrance in bath salts so you can luxuriate with the scent of winter woods in the warm bath water. Contains virgina cedarwood and siberian fir essential oils.

There are a few other concoctions I've been working on but I won't mention them in case they don't end up working! I've also considered offering the GINGERDEAD MAN fragrance in at least perfume format (Gingerbread Cookies crash into a dark earthy corruption of Patchouli, Vetiver and Earth Musk...delicious...and deadly).


Nancy from White Magick Alchemy will be crafting some DELICIOUS Egg Nog votives for the gift sets. I got one of these in her 2x3 size last year and it is seriously to die for. It smelled amazing by itself and has great throw. It also smells delicious burned in concert with her clove candles. There will be a very limited amount of gift sets this year (probably only 18) and these will feature a precious GINGERBREAD MAN soap (that will have you running as fast as you can to lather up!) amoung other treats! I will only be offering this Gingerbread Man soap in the gift sets because they are time consuming and I can only make a few at a time so cannot mass produce them. The holidays are VERY busy and with my other full time job, I have to be careful with the time I do have.

That being said, some of the general catalog soaps and other items may not be stocked as often so that I can keep up with the seasonal items. If there are any general catalog items you need, try to snag them before Halloween to make sure you get them in case there is a slow restock. We will be working very hard to keep up with stock so that there will be plenty to offer for your holiday gift giving and personal needs.

HOME FRAGRANCE: I have had several requests for a variety of home fragrance items. I have been working on incense sticks and fragrance oils (for oil burners) and hope to offer some kind of home fragrance option in the future so you can bring some of your favorite Solstice Scents into the air.

WEBSITE UPDATE: We have been working on the website again and are trying to get it squared away. I would LOVE to have it ready for the Yule Collection release, but I think that might be a bit ambitious. One thing is for sure: we need to launch a separate website that will offer better controls for our growing business (for us) and more features. I would love to offer gift certificates that could be redeemed via a coupon code, among many other things.