Fir Real

Author: Kirsten K., Cocktails, Coffee, Food, Food & Drink, Fragrance, Holidays, Hot Drinks, Nostalgia, Spirits, Sweets, Tea

Loyal Swooners know that Kirsti and I are Fleur Crazy, but they might not be aware that I am also fir-crazy. Scent is the sense most closely connected to memory, and the smell of evergreen instantly conjures up happy childhood memories of decorating the Christmas tree and sitting beneath its boughs while tearing into presents with unbridled avarice. The scent always became sweeter as the tree dried out, and I used to gather the fallen needles into a muslin sachet, wanting to hold on to that adored aroma even after the last holiday decoration had been wrapped in tissue paper and put away.

When Starbucks introduced its erstwhile Juniper Latte a few years ago, it was a revelation to realize I could actually taste, as well as smell, this sylvan scent. Ever since, I’ve been searching for new ways to enjoy the flavors of the forest. I began this “noble” pursuit at Aftelier, the aromatic atelier of perfumer Mandy Aftel, which offers a range of Chef’s Essence® Flavor Drops for use in cooking and cocktails. Among them are Fir Needle, Juniper Berry, and Pine Needle. I was torn about which to try first when Kirsti went ahead and bought all three for me as a gift (BFF!*).

Fir Needle and Juniper Berry are both essential oils with strong scents in the bottle, but surprisingly smooth flavors when added to foods and beverages. I’ve used them to “spruce” up my morning coffee and to bring the bright, fresh essence of evergreen to snowy scoops of vanilla ice cream and seasonal sips of Christmas-y cocktails. An unexpected delight is the deep forest green of the thick Pine Needle Absolute, which has a wonderfully woodsy aroma and a sweet, smoky flavor that transports me to a mountaintop timberland every time I taste it. (For links to recipes, click on individual Chef’s Essence®s in Aftelier’s online shop).

If Christmas is your cup of tea, you’ll love the Douglas Fir Spring Tips Botanical Tea from Juniper Ridge. A recent fortuitous find, this company makes sustainably harvested and wildcrafted products using organic ingredients sourced from the slopes of Northern California. Their caffeine-free Douglas Fir tea allows you to literally drink in the quintessential scent of the season with its fresh, light flavor, while the authentic aroma of their Christmas Fir Room Spray will instantly relocate you to the redolent rows of a tree lot. In combination with their full line of bath, body, and home fragrance offerings, it’s like dropping a Tannen-bomb.

Finally, I don’t know if the Balsam & Cedar fragrance from Brayer Ridge Soap in Maine is “fir real” or not, but the company deserves honorable mention, because their Handcrafted Goat Milk Lotion is the most swoon-worthy moisturizing cream I’ve ever used. Last fall, on a visit to Eagle Island, I stumbled upon a tube of this luscious lotion with the sweet scent of my beloved balsam and cedar. As a natural product without artificial preservatives, it had an expiration date less than six months away, but I kept it in the fridge and managed to ration it all the way through summer. Lisa at Brayer Ridge only makes this lotion during the colder months of the year and, unfortunately, she’s already out for the season(!), but I’m consoling myself with her equally swoon-worthy Balsam & Cedar Whipped Body Butter and Goat Milk Soap, which bathe my bathroom in an alpine aroma.

If you’re looking for last-minute holiday gifts and know someone with a firry fetish, there’s still time to stockpile these fragrant and flavorful finds—or to branch out and try them for yourself. You might discover, as I have, that seasons change, but tree love lasts firever.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Aftelier Fir Needle, Juniper Berry, and Pine Needle Chef’s Essence® Flavor Drops
Juniper Ridge Douglas Fir Tea and Christmas Fir Room Spray
Brayer Ridge Soap Balsam & Cedar Bath and Body Products

*Best Firry Friend!

Bring Out the Best Skin Ever

Author: Kirsten K., Beauty, Fragrance, Wellness

Even in her 80s, my Auntie Jo had beautiful skin, which I attributed, in part, to her lifelong use of cold cream. In her day, it was common to cleanse the face of dirt and makeup by slathering on a thick, oil-based cream, then wiping it away with a warm, wet washcloth. Her preferred brand was Albolene, and I used to love dipping my fingers in the large jar as a kid while she went through her evening ablutions.

Having seen her perform the ritual numerous times, I was accustomed to the practice of using oils to “wash” the skin, which is why I was eager to try the Best Skin Ever line of cleansing oil blends from Living Libations.

According to the company’s website, “Washing the face with pure pressed plant oils is an ancient Ayurvedic and gracious gypsy method to cleanse and gently exfoliate the skin.” If you’re like me, you just tried to say “gracious gypsy” five times fast, then you added several of these exotic elixirs to your cart.

Featuring a heady medley of natural essences in a base of jojoba and virgin coconut oils, these potent potions cleanse and soften* skin at the same time while leaving behind an intoxicating fragrance. My favorites are Lavish Abundance (who could resist that name?), Neroli (like an orange tree in full bloom), and Tropical (island flowers with Hawaiian sandalwood).

Unlike the cold creams of old, which contained mineral oil and petrolatum (dead organisms), Best Skin Ever oils are all plant-based and bursting with life. It only takes a minute or two of massaging them into the skin before they are absorbed completely, leaving no oily residue. The only thing that lingers is the lush aroma.

I am a fairly frugal person, but I lost all sense (and cents) over these scents. While I used to wash-and-go, now I tarry over my toilette, so if you haven’t taken the time recently to stop and smell the roses (and the jasmine and the gardenia and the orange blossoms…), bring out the Best Skin Ever and let it bring out the best in you.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Living Libations Best Skin Ever

Instructions for how to use these oils for cleansing can be found below the description of each blend on the Living Libations website.

As of this writing, The Raw Food World is having a “Below Cost” sale on Best Skin Ever blends for a limited time, so get yours at an incredible discount while supplies last. These are the 50 ml sizes, which are bigger than they look in pictures and come in attractive frosted glass bottles with wooden caps and a convenient plastic pump. You can use the coupon code “honeymoon” at checkout for an additional 7% off your order. Stock up!

*I used to be a product trainer for a skin and hair care company, and it still makes me a little crazy when people refer to oil as a moisturizer. Oil is an emollient, which makes skin soft and supple, but can’t moisturize, because it contains no moisture (i.e. water). Oil can act as a protective barrier to hold in existing moisture, or be blended with water and an emulsifier to create a moisture cream, but it will not moisturize skin on its own. For a moisturizing effect, apply oils immediately after taking a shower, while the skin is still damp, or hold a wet washcloth to your face for a few minutes before massaging in the oil.

Living Memori

Author: Kirsten K., Fragrance, Wellness

One of my favorite examples of a memento mori, “All Is Vanity” was drawn by illustrator Charles Allan Gilbert when he was just 18 years old.

Death is in the air at this time of year. Reminders of our mortality abound in the form of styrofoam headstones on suburban hillsides, ghost-shaped bed sheets billowing from branches, and costumed skeletons stalking the streets. All Hallow’s Eve gives way to Día de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, on which family and friends remember loved ones who have died. At Catholic school, where Kirsti and I met, All Souls’ Day was observed each November 2nd to commemorate the souls of Christians who’ve passed on (sorry, heathens, you’re S.O.L.—Souls Outta Luck!).

It is in this “spirit” that natural perfumer Mandy Aftel created Memento Mori for Aftelier, her Berkeley, California-based fragrance atelier (clever!). Memento mori is Latin for “remember that you have to die,” and this sentiment has been depicted in art throughout the ages to remind us that our time in these bodies is both fragile and fleeting. To create a similar work of art using her perfumer’s palette, Mandy sought to “capture the musk-like smell of skin” with aromatic essences ranging from ambergris to wood violet.

When I first inhaled the scent, it reminded me of Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo in New Orleans, a city that has itself elevated the celebration of life and death to an art form. There is something exotic, yet comforting, about the fragrance—a recognition of the simultaneous yearning to explore the new and unusual while clinging to the familiar and dearly beloved (or departed). I don’t know if I was influenced by the description, but it does call to mind the scent of sun-warmed skin, especially when emanating from the warmth of my own skin.

Mandy has said that Memento Mori was a deeply personal perfume for her to create, but perfume is also deeply personal to the wearer, both in the choice of fragrance and how it morphs and changes on each individual to create a unique blend of scent and self. It is a living thing, which is appropriate for a composition meant to remind us that, though our time here may be short-lived, it should be well-lived. So seize the day AND the spray, because Memento Mori may be one of the finest fragrances in living memory.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Memento Mori

Memento Mori is also available as a 2 ml miniature or 8 ml (¼ oz.) liquid perfume. Not ready to commit? Try a sample.

Taking the Waters

Author: Kirsten K., Beauty, Cold Drinks, Food, Food & Drink, Fragrance, Savories, Sweets, Wellness

Here in Southern California, we’re on the tail end of yet another summer heat wave. It feels like we’ve been pummeled with them this year, barely having time to enjoy a week of “cooler” temps (90s instead of 100s) before the next one rolls in. This latest wave brought some dreaded humidity that made going outside feel like stepping into a wet sauna. Ugh. We’re only midway through the season, so to keep my cool and freshen up when there’s no time for taking a bath, I’ve been taking the waters.

I discovered the culinary delights of rose water and orange blossom water when I got to know my Persian co-workers many years ago. They explained that Middle Eastern cooks use these floral waters in cooking and baking the way that most Americans use vanilla. I quickly learned that the waters also make fragrant and refreshing toners and tonics. During the summer, my favorite cooling trick is to pour them into spray bottles and keep them in the fridge for sweetly-scented spritzing throughout the day.

For years, I could only find Indo-European brand rose and orange blossom waters at Whole Foods and the ethnic foods aisle of some chain grocery stores, but then a large Middle Eastern market opened a few miles from my house and introduced me to a whole new world of culinary waters. There were familiar ingredients, like dillweed, cumin seed, and licorice, alongside less common ones, such as borage, sweetbriar, and willow, but some of the names were unrecognizable to me. What the heck is hedysarum? And fumitary water sounds like a treatment you’d be given on the road to wellville.

I bought them all.

Since I’m more of a baker than a cook, the dillweed and cumin have languished on a shelf, but orange blossom continues to be a favorite scent, and a rose by any other name—whether Naab or Ghamsar Kashan—smells as sweet. A whiff of willow holds hints of violet and rose, while fumitary emits the unexpected essence of peppermint. On sweltering summer nights, nothing beats a mist of mint water on sheets, pillows, and overheated skin, especially under the cooling currents of a fan.

Many of the descriptions online recommend taking these waters as a tonic beverage with plain water and sugar added. According to one, chicory water can “refine the blood,” promoting skin and liver health. Another claims that fenugreek water helps lower blood sugar and strengthen hair. Willow is said to stimulate the appetite, while fumitary (sometimes called fumitory) is beneficial for treating eczema and psoriasis. Hedysarum, which has a flavor completely unfamiliar to my American palate, tastes slightly medicinal, with a sharp earthiness and a trace of fruit that is both strange and exotic … and, apparently, useful for whooping cough.

In addition to Indo-European, I have found culinary waters from Cortas, Al Wadi, and Sadaf, but the largest selection is produced by Golchin. Most of them are only $3-5 a bottle, so stock up this summer and hydrate liberally, inside and out, because taking the waters is (almost) as therapeutic as a trip to the spa.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Culinary Waters

If you don’t live near a Middle Eastern market and can’t find these culinary waters at your local grocery store or gourmet food shop, many are available online from Persian Basket.

A Faint Whiff

Author: Kirsten K., Author: Kirsti K., Fragrance

Grab the smelling salts, because The Swoon Society is proud to introduce a Scent Worthy Of Our Noses: SWOON Perfume! Reflecting our signature bouquet, this bespoke fragrance unveils sweet scents of rose and violet…with a twist. Due to the skills of our master chemist, SWOON Perfume contains special aldehydes and esters that will actually make you feel lightheaded. The effect only lasts for a few minutes, but some users have gone weak at the knees, so make sure you spritz while sitting down and never drink in this “eau de sprawlette” before you drive.

SWOON Perfume is the first fragrance on the market designed to literally overcome your senses, so prepare to fall head over heels when you get a faint whiff of our intoxicating new scent.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

SWOON Perfume

If something about this post smells fishy, you’re nobody’s fool. Happy April 1st!

Essential Soil

Author: Kirsten K., Beauty, Fragrance, Wellness

Years ago, when I developed a sensitivity to deodorant, I tried virtually every brand on the market before finding one that actually worked and didn’t make my underarms feel like the pits. This miracle product was the Super Protection Deodorant from Terressentials, a small company dedicated to environmental responsibility and 100% natural and organic body care. I could devote an entire post to my regard for this roll-on were it not for the fact that underarm deodorant isn’t a particularly swoon-worthy topic. Fortunately, I discovered that Terressentials also makes an unconventional hair wash that functions as a Shampoo Worthy Of Our Notice.

Always on the lookout for simple, natural hair and skincare solutions, I jumped on the “no ’poo” bandwagon a few years ago, using a baking soda wash and apple cider vinegar rinse to clean and condition my hair. Apostrophe slang aside, I loved how this crack combo cleaned my scalp without weighing down my waves, but when I read several articles about the harsh effects of baking soda, I knew I had to find a fresh fix.

terressentials-lavender-garden-pure-earth-hair-wash After trying several different products and conducting a few disastrous homemade experiments (turns out you have to SIFT the rye flour), I spied Terressentials’ Pure Earth Hair Wash while on a deodorant run at my local health food store. I’d seen this product before over the years, but had dismissed it as not suitable for my scalp, which tends toward oiliness. However, in the interest of research, I decided to try the sweetly-scented Lavender Garden.*

This wash takes some getting used to. Composed primarily of organic aloe vera and bentonite clay, it contains no soap or detergent and does not foam up. You must massage the mud-like paste into wet hair for 2-3 minutes to make sure it comes in contact with all parts of the scalp. It’s also recommended that you repeat this process the first few times you use it in order to thoroughly clean your hair.

While it may seem like a paradox, washing with dirt actually works! Without harsh cleansers or heavy conditioners, my hair was squeaky clean and untangled with ease, while the essential oil fragrance surrounded me in scents of lush lavender, sweet orange, and rose geranium. Just a dab of unscented hair gel to tame frizz and flyaways and I was good to go.

When it comes to pure and natural hair care, sometimes you have to get your strands dirty, so dig up this essential soil and bring your shampoo down to earth.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Terressentials Pure Earth Hair Wash

*It turns out that Lavender Garden is recommended for normal-to-dry hair, but it works well for my scalp.

Scentuary

Author: Kirsten K., Fragrance, Wellness

Kirsti’s recent post about Jasmin et Cigarette perfume prompted recollections of the time she introduced me to a similarly surprising combination of scents, which has played an unexpected role in my life ever since.

Several years ago, I was struggling with some personal issues in the weeks leading up to my birthday and had fallen into depression. Kirsti and her husband Aaron, unaware of my distress, had arranged to take me out to dinner on my birthday. I was not in a mood to celebrate and secretly hoped for an excuse to get out of it, but none presented itself, so I resolved to get on with it.

I arrived at the restaurant to find that Kirsti and Aaron were already seated with a bottle of champagne on ice. They greeted me enthusiastically and had the server fill our glasses to toast the occasion. Over a delicious meal, we shared stories and camaraderie in a cozy, candlelit setting.

After we’d eaten, Kirsti produced gift bags and a beribboned black hatbox filled with presents, including a small bottle of Violet/Leather fragrance from OLO. Perpetually on the lookout for all things violet, she’d come across this blend by perfumer Heather Sielaff in Portland, Oregon, and thought it was curious enough to warrant purchasing a bottle, scent unsmelled.

I dabbed the perfume on my wrist and breathed it in. The violet was there, softly lingering around the edges, but the leather was front and center. Having been a vegetarian for more than 20 years, it was not the type of scent I would have chosen for myself, but it suited me at that time. Clean and straightforward, it was both edgy and old-fashioned without a trace of cloying sweetness. I kept returning my nose to my wrist to see how the fragrance evolved.

As I sat there enveloped in violet and leather, I observed diners enjoying their food and each other’s company. There was a tangible sense of fellowship in the dimly lit room. Sated with dinner, pleasantly relaxed from the wine, and basking in the warmth of good friends, I felt a profound shift occur within me. Suddenly, I thought, “You are loved. Life is beautiful. All is well.” And like that, the mood that had been dogging me for weeks dissolved completely.

Studies have shown that scent triggers memories and emotions more than any other sense, so whenever I find myself going through a rough patch, I reach for my bottle of Violet/Leather perfume and inhale. The fragrance instantly transports me back to that birthday dinner and the feeling of absolute well-being I experienced.

While I can’t necessarily credit the perfumer with this transformation, OLO sells a number of intriguing scents with names like Victory Wolf, Dark Wave, and Lightning Paw that are worthy of a whiff. Perhaps one of them will turn out to be the special fragrance that becomes entwined with your own happy memories and creates a “scentuary” that you can return to whenever you need a reminder that all is well.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

OLO Fragrances

Jasmin et Cigarette – The Perfume of Every Wicked Temptress

Author: Kirsti Kay, Fragrance

I’m all talk. I know a lot about salacious subjects, strange places, and shocking-but-true stories, but I’ve lived a fairly sheltered life growing up in the Valley. Kirsten’s mom thought I was “too worldly” to be friends with her daughter in 7th grade, mostly because I was reading a lot of my mom’s romance novels at the time. You know, the kind where pirates kidnap a beautiful, nubile orphan named Annabel who just happens to know how to use a sword (and so does the pirate…wink, wink). I can tell you where to go in Paris for a night of carnal intrigue, but I’m in bed before those places even open. And I will always take the conversation to the “Oh no, you didn’t!” place. I want to be a cool kid, but instead I’m a goofball with a dirty mouth who loves pirates.

Because I love knowing about bizarre and interesting things that are outside my smallish world, I’m always on the hunt for the unusual. I happen to have a copy of Paul Lynde’s will. I own an actual John Wayne Gacy clown drawing (but, trust me, it only comes out at dinner parties) and my bathroom is decorated with vintage doll heads. So when I stumbled upon the perfume Jasmin et Cigarette from celebrated French perfumer Etienne de Swardt of Etat Libre d’Orange, I was filled with curiosity, delight, and a little fear.

It’s pretty audacious to create a perfume that smells like cigarettes. Oh, and also “a woman’s skin when she exposes her freshness to the dark seduction of night.” But with other scents, such as Fat Electrician, Dangerous Complicity, and Secretions Magnifiques, you know this is not the kind of perfume a lady in Macy’s is going to spray on you while you are trying to find the bathroom. These are fragrances meant to work you up, to scandalize, to cause a revolution. Etat Libre d’Orange has more than 30 scents and I want to try them ALL.

I thought the bottle would look really fun next to my Demeter Funeral Home and Holy Water perfumes, so I impulsively bought it online without smelling it, but I was secretly hoping I would love it, because I wanted to smell like cigarettes from France! The fragrance contains jasmine absolute, tobacco notes, apricot, tonka bean, curcuma, cedarwood, amber, and musk. My friend Rebecca thought I was crazy to spend $50 on a perfume I haven’t tested that allegedly smells like…oh, you know, an ashtray in a garden of jasmine, but if you have enough guts to name your perfume Jasmin et Cigarette, I have enough guts to give you money for it.

I have to tell you, it does smell like cigarettes! I also have to tell you that it smells amazing, like no other perfume I have ever smelled before. It is smoky and gently floral. It is mysterious and, yes, kind of scary. It makes me feel like a secret agent or a Bond girl or a wicked temptress. It makes you want to lean in closer. And closer still. It definitely does not make me feel like a girl from the Valley who talks a lot of shit. When I wear Jasmin et Cigarette, I’m not telling stories, I AM the story. I might not ever be as cool as an ingénue who can French inhale, but at least I can smell like one.

But now, it is my bedtime and I hope to be dreaming of pirates.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Jasmin et Cigarette Perfume

Jasmin et Cigarette can be purchased in the States from Le Pink & Co.

A Taste of Your Own Medicine Flower

Author: Kirsten K., Dessert, Food, Food & Drink, Fragrance, Recipes, Sweets

Both Kirsti and I have written about our love for floral flavorings and the disappointing search for a true violet culinary extract following our swoon-worthy taste of violet ice cream in the South of France. It can be difficult to find a natural violet extract, since the blossoms only produce a small amount of essential oils. For this reason, violet was one of the first perfume essences to be synthesized, and this extends to the kitchen, where artificial violet extracts are the norm. While they might smell and taste like violet, there’s usually a chemical undertone that tells you this flower was “grown” in a lab.

I have purchased a number of extracts that claim to be natural flavors or to taste just like violet, but they invariably turn out to be either analogs (i.e. synthetics) or made from orris root, a member of the iris family that is commonly used as a fixative in perfumes and is reputed to smell and taste like violet. While there is a violet-like quality to the fragrance, it is nothing that a true violetesse would mistake.

I’d almost given up the perennial search when I came across Medicine Flower, an “aromatic apothecary” that sells essential oils, massage and body care products, and genuine, 100% natural flavor extracts…including a violet that is “made from the material named on the label.” Wary, but excited, I purchased a small dropper bottle. When it arrived, I could detect the essence of violets before I’d even opened the package. Here it was at last: a natural, culinary extract that smelled and tasted like true violet.

According to their website, Medicine Flower’s extracts have a flavor potency that is 30-70 times higher than other products on the market. I have no trouble believing this, because I’ve used my violet extract in chocolate, baked goods, hot drinks, ice cream, and anything else that might benefit from a floral fix for the past couple of years and there’s still some of the precious essence left in the original bottle that I purchased.

True to its name, Medicine Flower also makes jasmine and Bulgarian rose flavor extracts that are as swoon-inducing as the violet. Undiluted rose and jasmine absolutes can run in the hundreds of dollars per ounce, but these natural flavor extracts are only $22 for 15 ml (½ oz.) and can perfume your cooking and baking with just a drop or two, making them a phenomenal value.

Floral extracts particularly enhance desserts. Add a couple of drops to the batter and/or frosting when making cakes and cupcakes, then garnish with fresh or candied blossoms. The rose is intense and intoxicating, like burying your face in a bouquet of velvety blooms. I like to put a single drop in a glass of lemonade or pink champagne and float a couple of petals on the surface. The jasmine is even more concentrated and has a fruitier aroma than most jasmine flowers I’ve encountered. Mix a drop into vanilla ice cream for a treat unlike any you’ve tasted.

These are only a small sampling of the 65 culinary extracts that Medicine Flower produces, which include flavors as diverse as butterscotch, cucumber, dark chocolate, fig, wildflower honey, and cabernet sauvignon grape. With so many to choose from, write yourself a prescription for several bottles and get a taste of your own Medicine Flower.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:

Medicine Flower Genuine Flavor Extracts

Medicine Flower flavor extracts can also be dabbed on wrists as a light perfume or added to massage oils, soaps, and other body care products (great for birthday or holiday gift giving). Mix and match to create your own culinary mixture or signature scent.

Update 3/22/17:

Medicine Flower is ushering in a Spring Worthy Of Our Noses (and our palates) with discounted prices on select floral flavors and absolutes, plus 13% off your entire order when you use the code SPRING17, so stock up and enjoy a scent-sational season.

The following items are on sale:

Bulgarian Rose Flavor
Jasmine Flavor
Violet Flavor

Agarwood (Oud) Absolute
Frangipani Absolute
Jasmine auriculatum Absolute
Linden Blossom Absolute
Orange Blossom Absolute

The One Hair Product I Can’t Live Without

Author: Kirsti Kay, Beauty, Fragrance

How does a relatively sane person end up going around to all the people she knows and asking them to smell her bangs? How does a mild-mannered girl from the Valley sit smugly at a concert silently thinking, “You’re welcome,” because we are packed in like sardines and everyone is able to breathe in the intoxicating aroma of her fragrant hair? Is it weird to wake up in the night and smile because your awesome-smelling hair woke you up, and then fall back into blissful dreams of jasmine petals and orange blossoms?

Our story begins on a rainy winter’s day in Portland, Maine. After a wonderful visit, our dear friend Treena dropped my husband and me off at the bus station, where we were catching a bus to the Boston airport. It was gray and drizzly and we were sad that our trip had come to an end. When it was time to queue up for the bus, there was an adorable gal with a service dog in front of us in line. Aaron asked if he could pet her dog, and as we started chatting, I was suddenly overcome with the most delicious scent. I could barely concentrate on our conversation because I was just breathing in this strange, invisible perfume that wafted from this woman, hypnotizing me with its floral majesty.

It turns out she was heading to L.A. with her sweet dog Lula to live with her boyfriend in Sherman Oaks. Wait. Sherman Oaks is about 15 minutes away from where we live! And, you say…your boyfriend works in the entertainment industry? Aaron works in the entertainment industry! Oh, and you’re obsessed with your dog? We’re obsessed with our dog too! And, hey, you smell so good and I happen to love good smells! By the time we got on the bus, we were friends.

I said to Aaron, “Wow, didn’t she smell amazing?”
“I guess,” he said.
I thought about it the whole flight home.

The contents of this tiny tub will Revive & Balance your hair while enveloping you in a heavenly floral scent.

The first time she came over with her boyfriend and Lula, I gave her a hug, and not-so-subtly buried my face in her hair like a woman-starved pirate from a cheap romance novel. “Wow, you smell so good,” I said like an idiot. She casually mentioned it was a hair conditioner from Lush. As I poured the wine, I made a mental note to GET THEE TO THE NEAREST LUSH, ASAP!

The next morning, I went straight to Lush’s website, but they had so many conditioners I had no idea which was the one that had bewitched me body and soul. I was going to have to ask her again. I had anxiety. Some people don’t like to reveal their recipes or the name of their perfume…could conditioner fall into this quagmire of personal secrets? Would I be gauche for asking AGAIN?

The next time we met, I was slightly sweaty with anxiety. But the moment I got into her car and smelled that now familiar floral cloud, I just blurted out, “Please tell me again what that conditioner is!” She laughed the confident laugh of a woman who knows how good she smells and said, “It’s from Lush and it’s called R&B.”

I immediately went online when I got back to my office and discovered that R&B is actually a hair moisturizer, not a hair conditioner. The website also said it’s good for curly or African American hair, which was a little concerning, because I have the finest baby hair in the ENTIRE WORLD. Whatever, it shall be mine! And it was.

Just a dab of this Lush-ious styling cream will tame flyaways and smooth curls.

At $24 for 3.5 oz., it’s not cheap, but a little goes a long way. It is very thick, almost like body butter. At first, I put a little bit on my freshly washed hair as a leave-in conditioner and it was too much for my baby fine hair. The best way to use this product is to apply it to dried hair as a styling cream. If you have wonderfully thick and curly hair, this will cradle each curl in fragrant shine and softness. If you have fine hair like me, rub about a pea-sized amount into your hands and smooth down flyways. I also rub a bit into my bangs since that hair is the closest to my nose. Immediately, I am enveloped in the scent of angels, if angels lived in a hair product inside a mall store. The ingredients are vegan and mostly natural, featuring orange flower absolute, Indian jasmine absolute, and organic avocado butter. And, like all of Lush’s products, R&B is cruelty free.

I’m sure I seem like a ding-dong asking my friends and co-workers to smell my hair, but all of my lady friends have swooned right along with me. I made sure to give everyone clear instructions on how to buy and use it. I’m ready to pay it forward, one awesome-smelling set of bangs at a time.

Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice in this post:

Lush R&B Hair Moisturizer

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