Scent By The Sea - Green Tea

Green Tea is slightly fruity and dry with the tea undertone.

I like this one better than other green tea scents I've tried, but it's still not a favorite. I think this is an aquired taste and it's growing on me since it's a clean scent

Description from Etsy shop...I've been on a decade-long search for good green tea perfume. In sniffing others' blends, I've come to realize that when people talk about a green tea perfume, they can mean one of two types. The first type actually smells like green tea--musty, earthy--and the second type is more like how you *wish* green tea would smell--light, fresh, and tart. My green tea blend definitely belongs to the second category--it's an incredibly airy light accord of green tea fragrance oil, yuzu (japanest grapefruit) essential oil, and lemon essential oil. It's one of my Diva scents (stand-alone, single note or simple blends) and perfect for spring.


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Scent By The Sea - Gidget

I think Gidget is supposed to smell like fun in the California sun, but for me it smells like soap. Really clean and dry...I guess I'm really missing something, maybe it will develop over the day.

So I didn't get much change over the day and I'm not saying the soap smell is a bad thing, but I just hate it when I don't smell what I'm supposed to, plus I really love the beachy smelling fragrances.

Description from the Etsy shop...Does summer have a scent? If it did it would have to recreate the season's sweetest memories: cutoff shorts and tiki torches; salt breezes and Coppertone; daring each other to walk out to the furthest rock on the jetty; late nights borrowing his anorak; talking until midnight under the deserted lifeguard station. All the traditional joys of a too-short summer season are wrapped up in this perfume, blending sweetness and floral with citrus-y floral fresh air/water notes.


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Scent By The Sea - Farnese Garden

Hmmmm...this one is tricky. It started out sharp and slightly bitter, with a woody note, and if I sniff it closely I still smell that. But from a distance it wears as a much more complex fragrance.

I think I'll have to see how it wears all day to make a decision.

I did end up kind of liking it if only for the fact that it gave me a scent memory. There was a slight floral to it in the end, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Definitely a whole garden scent, started out woody and then moved onto a floral.

The whole time I've been wearing this I've been thinking the scent reminds me of something and I finally figured it out...it reminds me of a fragrance the mother of my best friend from elementary school wore. I have no idea what it was, but every time I get a whiff of this, I see my friends mother.

Here is a brief description from the Etsy shop...Farnese Gardens – Roman fever, cypress-lined walks, stolen kisses


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Scent By The Sea - Cioccolata

So I'm not usually a fan of chocolate scents, they are either too strong or too fake smelling, this one however, is really well done. The chocolate smells true to chocolate not fake.

For me I'm not getting the other notes, but I also, think that the blend is what keeps the chocolate from smelling fake. If you sniff the sample bottle you get the citrus note from the description.

All in all I like it.

Description from the Scent by the Sea shop at Etsy...This fragrance blends a milk chocolate scent with a citrus top note and a touch of floral in the drydown, creating a sweet and fresh accord inspired by La Serenissima.


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Scent By The Sea - Tehura

Hello tropical island!

First sniff was jasmine, I think, now it's on to an orange or neroli, with another floral.

Again a really nice scent. I think it could get cloying if applied heavily, but as an oil on the pulse points very nice.

Here is the description from Etsy...Tehura – named for Gaugin's favorite Tahitian mistress – combines the powerful and hypnotic scent of gardenia with other white flower notes to create a heady and memorable melange

So, the gardenia is the tiare flower, I think.


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Whirlpool HE Washer

For any of you that know me well, you may have seen the wonderful picture I posted yesterday on Facebook of my 5 y/o Whirlpool Washer. If I can ever figure out how to get it from my iphone to my iPad I'll add it here until then you can see the lovelyness in my Facebook photos.

Anyway, said washer is in my best guess a lemon of the highest caliber. From day one, after it was delivered and installed by Lowes, it shook the entire house, made fabulous banging noises and spewed water from the drain tube, all the while twisting our clothing into knots.

This washer was purchased on my 6th anniversary, before we had the monkey, b/c as you all know little monkeys make lots of laundry. In all actuality my monkey is far messier now than she was as an infant, but that is neither here nor there for this. And yes the joke was the washer and dryer were my anniversary presents, haha. Ladies never accept appliances or home goods as any type of gift, unless your also receiving a nice piece of jewelry, too.

So back to the story....washer and dryer arrive get installed and get put to use. Washer goes nuts. Husband and I, very pregnant, watch the washer shake, rattle and roll, and fear that it's going to chase us out of the laundry room, actually out of the basement, of our split entry home. So we try every thing to cure this. Husband builds pedestals for the set. Bolts the pedestals to the basement floor, we think you could park a car on this pedestal, the washer will be fine, nope.

We call for service, which BTW, never buy from the store, they just want your $$$ they don't actually want to do the service you want. But while under warranty they were fine, the guy came out replaced one or two of the shocks, all seems fine....then it starts again, we call again and again and again. Each time the repairman opens the bottom of the washer and reconnects the shocks, well hell I can do that...once a week for the next 4+ years.

Now it's shimmied and vibrated so much that the panel where the shocks were hidden is now popped open and the door panel that covers the drum has fallen down, if we could get the bottom panel to stay closed it might fix the door problem, but who knows.

So off to purchase a new washer. Yesterday I spent hours doing research and for every washer that was recommend at certain websites there was a pattern for say every 2 good consumer reviews there was 1 horror story about how bad the product was and on top of that the overwhelming theme was how terrible the manufacturer customer service was. So I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what we buy the product will suck and so will the customer service.


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Scent By The Sea - Sandalwood Vanilla

I could smell this everyday. So nice.

I always thought sandalwood was maybe a super strong note and over whelmimg...I'm wrong. This blend is great!

At first sniff I got the vanilla, then onto the sandalwood...at least that's how it worked for me, although every once in a while I get the vanilla again. Again SO nice! I want to carry this around with me all day.


Would totally wear this again!

I have a feeling I'm going to be placing a big order here when I get done with my samples, and I wish I hadn't waited so long to test them.

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Scent By The Sea - Cote d'Azur

I'm really liking this one. It's a clean but complex scent. Maybe a little lemon, ocean water, grass.

I'm kind of at a loss for notes because they blend to make a really nice scent, that isn't over powered by one note.

So I got this totally wrong...here is the description from the ladies at Scent By The Sea...This perfume invokes the hedonistic vibe of the French Riviera in high summer, with notes of lavendar, champagne, vanilla and a hint of coconut.

But I like it and I'd wear it again.



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Scent By The Sea - Frangipani

Hello tropical island floral.

This is a vibrant, and by vibrant I mean a blast of fragrance, creamy floral.
I smell an undertone of vanilla, but the floral is the majority of the scent.

I'll see how it wears.

Couldn't find a description for this one to compare. If I do I'll update.


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Wylde Ivy - Woodland Cider

You guessed it another apple scent

So out of the test tube I smelled McIntosh or MacIntosh apple, you know those crisp sweet apples. They happen to be one of my favorite apples.

Now I'm on to a sweet cinnamon note, and I'm happy to say that my skin is not having it's usual reaction to the cinnamon, which is burning and redness. Yay!

Nice scent, but for me not as complex as She's so Flirty, which is one of my current favorites.

Here is a note list from Scent Base (www.scentbase.com) Fresh pressed apples, cider spices, aged oak, dry amber, rustic wildflower honey, and whips of late autumn blooms.

Ashlee at Wylde Ivy didn't have a scent description up at this time, since this scent is seasonal.


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Wylde Ivy - Apple Festival

Lately I've had a love affair with apple scents, in particular She's so Flirty, and 50's Diner, well to be honest 50's Diner is rhubarb, but the note to me is similar...anyway, this affair with the apple or crisp top notes prompted me to try Fall Mountain Festival and today's scent Apple Festival.

So Apple Festival started out with a crisp blend of apples, not one particular apple. Now I'm at a creamy blend of apple and vanilla, and maybe some sugar.

I found that over the day the scent was light and would have to be reapplied, but still a nice scent.

Here is the scent description from Wylde Ivy...When fall starts to paint the leaves in a wash of color, it is time for the apple festival. The warm autumn breeze carries the scent of all things apple as vendors prepare their luscious treats. Apple pies and apple dumplings, vanilla milkshakes, and the scent of the surrounding trees. There is just a hint of other fruited delicacies like strawberry pie and peach cobbler mixing with the apples and oak leaves.


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Wylde Ivy - Fall Mountain Festival

I'm going to start off by saying this would make a fabulous candle or tart melt to scent a home. For me right now I like this, but I feel like I smell like a candle. I don't know if I could wear this as a perfume all the time, but I'd love to scent my home with this for the fall.

So what I'm smelling is a little spice, like a light cinnamon, with a dried apple, a little grass, and a warm sugary vanilla.

Here is the scent description from Wylde Ivy..."Fall Mountain Festival" ~Wylde Blend~ Customer Commission A Scent Creation
If you travel deep into the heart of the mountains on a beautiful autumn weekend you are sure to find at least on fall festival celebration. Kettle corn and woodsmoke mingle in the air along with the scent of dried oak leaves and hay bales sweeten with crushed Granny Smith apples, a touch of vanilla, and caramelized sugar.

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Back to School...Back to Testing

Well I have to say this was a fantastic summer! The girl and I went to the beach at least once a week and had so much fun together. I don't think either of us is ready for the fall. It was a struggle to get her to shop for back to school clothes.

I'm also trying to get back into the swing of things. I haven't tested a scent in I don't know how long, but it didn't keep me from accumulating a huge backlog.

As long as we don't have 100 degree heat or humidity, I plan to test frequently until I get through my backlog and accumulate more while doing so.

Look for new "reviews" soon.

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