Cake Beauty You Deserve This Set - Milk Made hand creme and Cake Walk foot creme review

Anyone who knows me will know how much this line has my name written all over it. A line of bath and body products that smell like CAKE. I've always been a huge fan of the foody/gourmand/edible scented genre of fragrance and bath products. If it says 'vanilla' on it, I'll more than likely buy it. Probably explains why I have vanilla toothpaste, vanilla-lavender furniture polish and vanilla scented garbage bags...

Despite a theme that suits my fragrance preferences perfectly, I still had never tried Cake Beauty. Partially because no one seemed to carry it. Recently Sephora started to stock the brand online, so this summer I ordered the "You Deserve This" set for my first taste of Cake (Beauty).

The set contains a Milk Made hand creme and a Cake Walk foot creme. Description and photo from Sephora.com:

"You Deserve This Set ($32 Value)
What it is:
A high-value duo designed to indulge the hands and feet.

What it does:

Nourish overworked and underpaid hands with this rich, vitamin-packed hand crème. The lightly scented formula is luxurious and silky, and absorbs quickly into the skin, leaving your hands feeling soothed and smooth, never greasy. For the feet, try this trusted recipe that works to ease tension and swelling with extracts of spearmint, peppermint, and pure menthol. Nourishing and hydrating oils and butters lock in moisture to instantly give feet (and legs) a lasting soft feeling.

This set contains:
- 3.4 oz Milk Made™ Velveteen Hand Crème
- 3.4 oz Cake Walk™ Triplemint Foot Crème

What it is formulated WITHOUT:
- Parabens
- Sulfates
- Petrochemicals
- Phthalates
- GMOs
- Triclosan

What else you need to know:
Milk Made is infused with scents of warm vanilla and a hint of fresh raspberry. Cake Walk features the scent of energizing spearmint with a pinch of peppermint."

The bottles are really attractive. They're white squeeze tubes with a flat flip-top cap which is nice because the tube can stand up and it's also neater than a screw-top cap. The color schemes are cute- pink and white and pink, white and green. The tubes are a generous size but not too big to easily carry in your purse or to keep in your desk.

I was most looking forward to the scent of Milk Made, and at first I loved it. When it first comes out of the tube is has this strong burnt-sugar creme brulee baked goods type of scent. There's not much of a raspberry smell straight from the tube. Sadly, the scent turned really bad on me. The "raspberry" scent came out when I started to rub in the lotion and the whole thing morphed into this sharp, artificial burned sugar chemical type of scent. The kind of scent that makes the bridge of my nose hurt and gives me a headache. The scent is long-lasting, which would be awesome if I liked the scent. It really lingers with you all day.

The Cake Walk foot creme turned out to be my favorite. The scent can easily be described as "mouthwash." I don't normally like mint scents- they end up smelling like gum or toothpaste and that grosses me out. This one, while it does smell like an oral hygiene product, is quite pleasant once it dries down a bit. It's not super strong, it's more of a soft, sweet peppermint and spearmint scent. It is definitely pleasant and even a bit relaxing. It says it contains menthol for a cooling effect, but the cooling effect on me is very minimal. It may be worth mentioning that I seem to be immune to almost every type of cooling/menthol product- I can't even feel Icy Hot- so it may be stronger on someone else. Though, Bath and Body Works Twisted Peppermint lotion still makes me freezing cold and tingly for almost an hour after I apply it. Maybe it's the type of oil or amount of menthol used? Straight mint oil versus oil plus menthol? Who knows.

The formula on both of these was excellent. The hand creme is light and quickly absorbed- not greasy at all. It's not super moisturizing like a heavier hand cream (Neuotrogena or L'Occitane come to mind) but it is still quite moisturizing. The foot creme is even better. It's so light and fresh and leaves such a wonderful feeling on my feet (and hands!) and it leaves my skin smooth for quite a long time. Another thing I really liked about the Cake Walk foot creme is that it also isn't greasy- it's not one of those foot cremes you apply and then try to stand up and end up sliding across the room on greasy feet... It absorbs/dries quickly and doesn't leave a layer of greasiness. It's best applied after a shower, but I like to apply it before bed.

So... my first experience with Cake Beauty. How do I feel? I wish I had liked the Milk Made scent more because I really like the formula of the lotion and the style of the tube. I would definitely buy another hand or foot creme from them if it came in a different scent. I'd really like to try more of their products and scents- the lemon vanilla one has me especially curious because that's one of my favorite combinations (still mourning the loss of Bath and Body Works Hello Sugar). I ordered the Holiday Hand Creme trio that contains It's A Slice, Vanilla Snow and Desserted Island. I was going to get it during Friends and Family but the set mysteriously disappeared completely from the site and didn't reappear until yesterday morning. I was baffled when it was removed from my shopping list and I searched high and low for it. Very mysterious...

On a related note, I've just learned that Cake Beauty is doing a Black Friday special! Starting Friday, if you place an order of $40 or more on their website they'll automatically include a mini Satin Sugar Hair and Body Refreshing Powder. I was looking at that last night, I'm very curious about it... it's a dry shampoo scented with lemon vanilla but it comes in a darker shade that might not be so obvious and white on my dark hair. I kinda want to try it...

Bath and Body Works American Grown

As you may have guessed, I'm not just a nail polish addict- I'm a complete beauty addict. Polish, makeup, perfume, bath and body... I love it all. And I have a bit of a Bath and Body Works addiction.

So, when I heard about the new American Grown collection by Bath and Body Works, I had to try it. It's a set of five scents based on great American destinations and they feature botanical extracts that were grown right here in the good old US of A.

The five scents are available in either 24oz Shower Gel for $12.50 or 16oz Hand Soap for $7.50. Ginormous bottles for a reasonable price- awesome!

The scents are:

Washington Apple: In the fertile valleys of Washington State in America’s far west, growers tend orchards that produce the world’s most crisp, ripe apples. Formulated with Apple Extract to help nourish skin, Washington Apple instantly evokes your first bite of a shiny red apple, an unmistakably juicy flavor.

Napa Grape: In the rolling hills of Napa Valley’s wine country, the alluring scent of ripe grapes wafts through the air. Breathe in this irresistible fragrance and experience the intoxicating aroma as grape seed oil conditions and protects skin.

Siesta Key Lemon: Nothing says summer like fresh-cut Meyer lemons from Florida. Sweeter than other lemons, the plump, smooth-skinned citrus produces a sparklingly fresh fragrance. Take an instant vacation to Siesta Key as Lemon Oil refreshes and brightens the skin.

Savannah Mint: A frosty glass of iced tea in a hot Savannah summer is twice as refreshing with a cool sprig of mint. Breathe in this invigorating fragrance and experience the romance of southern charm and gentility while Peppermint Oil energizes your skin and your senses.

Montana Sky: Experience the clear, crisp quality of the mountain air in big sky country with formulas inspired by the vast beauty of an endless blue sky. Bathe your skin in calming spring waters as you inhale a rush of fresh air.

I tried Siesta Key Lemon and Montana Sky. Here are my thoughts:

The first thing you notice is the big, clear, colorful bottle. The bright blue of Montana Sky and the cheerful yellow of Siesta Key Lemon look pretty good next to each other. They look just as good alone- it's almost as much of a decoration as it is soap. The packaging is plain and straightforward. Clear, colored bottles that remind me a little bit of candy and subtle white printed text. Very charming.

The texture is similar in both the hand soap and the shower gel. Very thick. They both produce a ton of fragrant lather. They rinse clean with absolutely no residue (I HATE residue!) and they don't strip my skin. The shower gel seems more moisturizing than the hand soap, but that could just be my imagination. The formulas seem really similar.

The scents are really nice. I really enjoy both the ones I tried and I'm thinking of picking up the rest.

Siesta Key Lemon is a subtle, natural lemon scent. It's not a sugary candy lemon and it's not a strong or bitter/sour 'Lemon Pledge' smell. It smells to me like Lemon oil- the natural kind that you'd use for aromatherapy. Just a hint of sweetness. It's not a strong smell- like I mentioned above, it's quite subtle. I adore lemon scents so this is great to me. I don't like it as much as I love Hello Sugar, but they're very different kinds of lemon scents. Which reminds me, I wish they'd bring back Hello Sugar! That was one of the best things EVER. But, that's another post for another time.

Montana Sky is a crisp, cool, airy aquatic fragrance. It smells like it could be a cross between the old Shore Breeze scent and Dancing Waters. It is slightly more of a 'perfumey' smell. It's fresh and sweet, maybe a little bit like clean laundry. It's pretty good for an energizing pick-me-up, but it's also a little calming because of the blue color and comforting scent. The scent of this one is a lot more powerful than the Siesta Key Lemon and it lingers afterward.

These scents are really very gender-neutral, so they're good for the whole family. Your husband won't complain about smelling like flowers or cookies. They just smell clean and fresh. I think men would actually enjoy using these as much as women do.

In fact, Mr. Scrangie gave me a little review of these products! Here's what he said:

He likes the smell of the Siesta Key Lemon better than the smell of the Montana Sky. The Montana Sky is almost too strong. However, he likes the bright blue color of the Montana Sky bottle better. He thinks it's cool that they're made in the US. He likes the size and appearance of the bottles as well.

I should have him review things more often!

Anyway, I really enjoy these products. I think they're a rather good deal as well. They're a very substantial size, so they'll last a very long time. I have the Montana Sky hand soap by my kitchen sink and there's barely a dent in it, even though I wash my hands a million times a day. You also don't need to use an entire pump with the hand soap- a full pump is too much, but a half-pump is pretty much the perfect amount. The look of the bottles is really clean, colorful and cheerful but they don't look 'cheap' to me.

This is, sadly, a limited edition collection. I believe these are retiring in September, so pick them up while you can. They're available in store and online at BathandBodyWorks.com- $12.50 for the giant shower gel, $7.50 for the huge hand soap.