Black Cat's Summer Bliss

[Black Cat]

 

COCONUT ~ Chastity, protection, purification, receptivity.

MUSK ~ Self confidence and strength, sexual attractant, heightens passions and arousal.

SANDALWOOD ~ Love, exotic, sensual atmospheric; aphrodisiac. Healing, spirituality, exorcism.

VETIVER ~ Enhances perception of beauty. Love, sensuality, money, luck, hex-breaking.

 

Mara's ingredients list: Coconuts, Cocoa Butters, Skin Musk, Sandalwood, Vetiver. << This last because I wanted to imply the dry wood smell of the Boardwalk, as the beach in question is at the Jersey Shore. 

 

Here is my email on this one:  

Just got back from a fantastic vacation on the Jersey Shore.  Went with my bff while his husband was away.  We drove the hour from their condo in Chatham to Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook in his new car, which has massaging seats, and playing Beyonce's latest album.  It was my first experience with a nude beach.  Not at all what I was expecting!  I thought it would be all young pretty people but it was mostly older people with beautifully imperfect bodies, just enjoying the sand and air and water and being completely themselves.  Sadly I am not allowed to go uncovered in the sun since mastectomies and radiation, but when I got into the water I actually did peel my shorts and t-shirt off for a stretch just to feel the ocean against my bare skin.  It was MAGIC.

 

When we got home, I was planning to stay up and watch tv and hang out but I realized pretty quickly that I needed to take a shower and go to bed -- all that time in the salt air on the sand, and swimming in the salt water, had been like a giant healing detox.  When I got out of the shower I felt so clean, sleepy and content.  I tumbled into bed and slept 13 hours. Looking for a snuggly, peaceful joyful vibe, summer vacation nostalgia.  I had that feeling of being a little kid being driven home from a day at the lake, utterly spent, utterly peaceful, utterly present

 

So I'm thinking:

 

Cocoa butter/white chocolate

layered over a base of sweet sandalwood

and then I can't decide which two of the following notes, so please choose for me: marshmallow and/or non-foodie vanilla and/or coconut

 

In the family of Sweet Surrender and GypsyMoon's Bohemian Beauty from years ago.  Snuggly, clean, wearing close to the skin, one of those "Am I wearing perfume?  Or do I just naturally smell UTTERLY AWESOME?"  Feminine but not too sweet

 

For a name.... hm.  How about Black Cat's Summer Bliss?

 

Y'all, I am SO EXCITED!  I'll be back with. an update this weekend.

[Amanda]

Oh I’m so excited I got one of these, sweet surrender is one of my absolute all time favorites and I’m constantly asking for it to be rebrewed! I know you said “family” so I’m not expecting the same thing but anything with that same vibe is definitely up my alley!! This description sounds amazing, what a wonderful day!🥰

[Onyx]

This sounds really lovely! I still have a lot of Amanda's Beach Sol so that's been my skin-musk beach scent, but I'll be looking out for reviews of this one! 

[Black Cat]

@Amanda and @Onyx I loved Beach Sol!  It's wonderful how Mara can capture so many nuanced takes on a single theme.  Sweet Surrender was such a favorite, I'm so curious what she'll do here, especially with the boardwalk note!

[Amanda]

I wore this to work today! The cocoa butter is straight chocolate on me, for a good hour or so and it’s really all I can smell, on my skin at least. After awhile though this softens to that gorgeous “ooh what *is* that” musk that I love so much! It really does remind me of sweet surrender in that way, the mouthwatering dry down. I put it on at 5am and I can still smell it right now at almost 9pm. This really is bliss ✨

[Black Cat]

Ooh @Amandathis makes me so happy!  Thanks for posting this to ride me over until (hopefully) my package arrives tomorrow! 😀

[tink333]

Your vacation time with your BFF sounds so amazing! Magical and cleansing. I bet the healing sleep was pretty amazing too. It all sounds so lovely.l, as does this scent. 

[Black Cat]

Aw thanks, @tink333!  It was a true vacation and also made me realize I don't prioritize getting in the ocean nearly enough.

 

So this definitely needs to settle but I can already tell I'm going to love it! Right now the Vetiver is overwhelming everything else but wow, the coconut/cocoa butter/skin musk thingy is going to be exactly what I wanted.  And I can also verify that Mara's comment about the boardwalk being evoked is spot on! Seriously I don't know how she does it, but this really captures/evokes that amazing beach day for me so perfectly -- overcast sky, seagulls wheeling overhead, the vast presence of the ocean and the drowsy effect of the salt air whipping around everything and that sense of contentment and total self acceptance.

 

I think when summer rolls around next year this will be, as the name suggests, utter bliss.