Haul - Bodygoodies

At least twice a year Bodygoodies has a free shipping sale, usually around the beginning of the summer and the holidays.  Since my last order was a year ago and there were many new things available, I decided to place an order even though my soap stash is still sizable.  I'm glad I went for it because it turned out to be my favorite order so far.  I ordered 4 soaps and a mystery bag.  Below is most of what I ordered.  Some of the soaps have had samples taken from them and are no longer full size (1, 2, and 4).

The first 4 I picked and the others were from the mystery bag or extras.

1. caribou crossing - unscented with a ground loofa bottom layer.  
2. clay bar - I'm not sure what this is scented with but it smells manly, my guess is black pepper or frankincense.  
3. bar none - unscented, this is the only one I haven't used yet.
4. lavender mint - I love the scent of this one and the swirls are pretty too.  I've used about a 1/3 already.
5. metz road soap ball - Smells like a cinnamon pastry, this was the first one I used because it was rolled in brown granulated sugar and the sugar had melted into the paper around it.
6. room 42 - rose geranium, patchouli and cocoa
7. amyst - rosemary mint.  I really like this one also but it has been retired.
8. samples of honey orange and beer soap

Between the mystery bag and the extras there were a lot of surprises.  In the bag were (5) and (7) above, a serum sample, a laundry stick, and a low tide sample.  (6) and (8) were extras everyone received with their order, and Heidi kindly included a tinted lip lotion I requested.

Below is the treatment serum sample and tinted lip lotion.  I'm not a regular serum user so I expect this will last a long time.  I've used it around my eyes a few times.  The lip lotion goes on nicely and the tin is pretty big for a lip product.  The tint is very light when applied.

Lip lotion and treatment serum

Tinted lip lotion in natural light

For anyone thinking about trying bodygoodies, the lather on these soaps is why I buy them, it's hard to describe the difference but it's worth splurging on if you want to try something new.  And if you already have a lot of soap, wait for the free shipping sales, which is usually $40 minimum.  Both times I've ordered during these sales I've received an extra free bar.

Moonalisa summer order

I lucked out again - I received another person's order by accident but was notified of the mistake before it arrived.  Like last time it doesn't bother me because there are so many scents I haven't tried.

• Blueberry Hill - Delicious, warm blueberry syrup, butter and pancakes, slurp.... this one is a straight up fragrance that is so good on its own, I never had the heart to add a thing.

• Bohemian Velvet - Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Nag Champa incense type of notes. Inspired from MoonaLisa's Haight Ashbury days as a Goth girl. It's like walking into one of those dark and exciting old pagan magic shops in the Haight, sadly which no longer exist  The lovely incense type aromas are sure to bring back old memories or build new ones.

• Blue Milk bubbling bath brew sample - no official description, it is a blueberry candy-type scent.

I opened these to sniff only without touching the roller balls.  If anyone is interested in them, I was planning on putting these on a couple forums or eBay at a discount from Moona's shop.

I like both perfume scents, I'm not into the sweet scents as much as I used to be so I would prefer Blueberry Hill in a wash-off product.  I've seen a few people rave about Bohemian Velvet and it is a really good scent, it smells like incense, I would like this as a home fragrance oil or a wax product.  Sometimes I find burning incense too smoky, and this doesn't smell that way, more like incense before it is burned.

My order contained perfumes of some of the scents I got in my Easter basket - Don't Get Your Knickers in a Twist, Dr. Bombay, and Patchouli & Petitgrain.  I wanted to get Lavender Absolute but figured I could buy a bottle online somewhere else and make my own version with a carrier oil.

If you ordered what are you looking forward to receiving?

Anticipation! First trip to California

For years I've been wanting to see California, and my wait will finally be over in the fall.  Three months ago I saw a deal for round trip flights to LA or San Francisco from NJ.  I'm more interested in seeing the coastline than spending time in either city so I bought tickets into SF and out of LA.  Excitedly I went to the county library for interesting travel books...and then largely put off figuring out what I wanted to do and where to stay, the information on hotels, restaurants, parks and things to do was overwhelming.  A couple weeks ago I realized I needed to get on the ball; some of the places I was hoping to stay were already booked.  Even though I shouldn't have I started browsing at work, reading reviews, and made all of the reservations over a couple of days.  The plan is to spend a couple of days in San Francisco, a few more in Monterey and Carmel, drive through Big Sur and then make one night stops to Santa Barbara and the airport.

The photos are what I'm looking forward to the most:  local ice cream, sea lions, Big Sur, and sunsets over water.  If anyone has restaurant recommendations please share!