Well we thought, “Why not do a giant review-O-ganza?” So we did it on a whim, which is exactly how this site functions. We run a very loose, bumpy ship here at the Haus of Waft. And we were blessed again with our review special! We came across so many cool products, scents, and people, our heads were practically spinning from all the excitement here. So I won’t tire out my fingers typing niceties and intros, hold on tight, here’s the reviews!
Dabney Rose owns Sweet Water Distillery, is a skin care whiz, and is a high class perfumer, you probably have seen reviews here singling her praises, and it is not stopping there! I received her AlcheMists, special mixes of hydrosols and waters, that are highly aromatic, a dose of aromatherapy, and that are just great. Abundant Life is the first of its kind, I think. (I use these as pillow sprays and room sprays) It’s a decadent and abundant blend distillation of agarwood, benzoin, basil, cacao, jade stone, (Intention too) and cinnamon. Wow, it makes you and your surroundings feel wonderful, Eric raved about this into my ears bled, lol not really, but you get the point, right? It’s remarkable really. But it says on the site that is not for skin, so use it when you feel sort of dumpy around you, like your bedroom, linens, and maybe spray around your bathroom when your about to take a nice luxury bath. Incense and agarwood lovers will love this one, thats for sure!
Gift is perfect for the season, it is an AlcheMist too, being made of frankincense, sandarac, and myrrh. Based of the three gifts baby Jesus recieved, this is a spicy  and vibrant blend of resins that I find very uplifting, and totally appropiate for helping with holiday stress. I think this is good for those that are interested in blends of the bible, but would also be great for anyone of any religion. The frankincense gives it brightness and clarity, and the sandarac and myrrh give it depth. I sprayed my pillows with this, and laid down while Eric cooked dinner, and just smelled my pillow for awhile. Goblins ran wild, cats climbed curtains, Eric yelled at everything in the kitchen, but I was under a starry night in the desert. I can not decide which AlcheMists I like better, but I can tell you this, no store bought air fresheners will ever grace my bedroom again, because we have experienced the best of the best.
Dabney what star were you born under that graced you with the ablilties to produce fine scents and the best hydrosols in the world? I’m not exaggerating when I say that her hydrosols can not be beat, I have experienced the many, many rose hydrosols (her green tea hydrosol is lovely and extremely helpful to skin too). I love rose hydrosol, they love skin and nose. But I spritzed some of her Rose Centifoliahydrosol on my skin, and it pratically perked up right there! The smell sets the standards high for roses everywhere, smoothly, but sharply rose. Full, feminine, and enticing. It has truly amped my skin care routine, and I will never buy another rose hydrosol for skin care unless it’s from Dabney Rose, no joking.
Ahh, and perfume. She has made a perfume, in her Dream Creme line, that is based on the anicent Egyptian Kyphi recipe. She say on her site “your DNA will recognize this one”. It does . The perfume is nicely named Ancient Nile, and the scents in the Dream Creme line are meant to be worn during your sleep, to “inspire your dreaming psyche”. But I can’t help but wear it when I’m awake! It’s a great representive of Kyphi, and again, to incense lovers, you will like this one. Its sweet, and blended so well that the ingredients become one, and this aids to the mystery of it’s botanical origins. However, Dabney Rose only produces natural perfumes, and products. I would take a guess, and say sandalwood is in it. It’s exotic, sweet, and it is a solid perfume, that goes on smoothly. I can’t have enough of this perfume! Dabney is a favorite perfumer here at the Haus of Waft (we have favorite perfumers like some have favorite musicians, they both compose notes). http://www.dabney-rose.com/home.htm

An Aussie perfumer we like a lot here is Ambrosia Jones, who runs and owns the perfumery, Perfume by Nature. Our Liz Grimly was smart and bought some samples from her awhile back, and I got handed Death by Chocolate, a chocolate gourmand, with a chocolate-y depth. This perfume is for the serious chocolate lover. But don’t think it lays flat on the chocolate! Ambrosia intorduced delightful chocolate to a wise desert wood. And the romance between the two is perfect, the wood letting outrageous chocolate laugh and be loudly naughty, with her friends, honey and spice,while the woody aspects lend support to the whole composition. A very naughty but nice perfume! http://www.perfumebynature.com.au/death_by_choc.htm

I don’t think anything is prettier than candles lit around the holidays. And beeswax candles are tons better than regular parrafin candles. However add the natural oils offrankincense and myrrh to them, and you have one hell of a holiday candle!Arabesques Aromas has produced a set of votives beeswax candles, with exactly that, frankincense and myrrh. It is lightly scented beauty, and it looks beautiful lit at night, while the natural beeswax melts, setting an etheral atmosphere. Just delighful. Arabesque Aromas produces some of the best beeswax candles and natural perfumes. This is another perfumery house much loved here at the Haus. I would not miss this holiday grab if I were you!http://www.etsy.com/listing/60300716/frankincense-and-myrrh-beeswax-votives

Liz Grimly’s Review
When I first started doing work at the Haus, when Aer and I first became friends… one of the first places she recommended to me was EdenBotanicals. This is a great site for anyone like me, just starting out in the world of perfumery, or even someone who’s a bit more experienced. I can not gush enough about this site! I’ve ordered from them twice so far, and each time was very impressed at the quality of the product, and the care with which they are handled and shipped. Each shipment arrives promptly, and the items carefully bubblewrapped to ensure that they arrive at their destination intact. And one of the best parts is the prices! Affordable, and they offer sample sizes, which is great for me- since I am just starting to dabble, and like to do small experimental batches of concoctions. This one site has just about anything you could possibly want… from cocoa absolutes, vanilla bourbon and carrier oils- to empty bottles, vials and pipettes. I LOVE this site! I will definitely make repeat orders here!

Fred Soll’s Resin on a Stick (Joyous Rose) : I actually got this locally, although this incense is not local. A very good friend of mine, (Aaron Barco, you know I am talking about you,lol!), got me this as a much suggested gift ( I heavily suggested it to him). I was happy to get Joyous Rose, I had heard somewhere that this incense was a tribute to his wife, Joy. How cool is that? Very. I did not expect it to blow me away, it did however. This a deeply rosey incense, but also strongly piney too. Who knew that resinous stubborn pine, I think Pinon pine, would marry so well to lighthearted rose? It does though, and it burns forever! It is a long stick, and must burn more than two hours. You do need to burn it standing straight, opposed to leaning like most cored stick incense. It feels the room with warmth, and makes me relax. A little more expensive than most stick incense, but worth it, the ingredients are high quality.http://www.fredsoll.com/basket/incensesticks.htm

Those who follow this site’s ramblings probably know that I have a slight obsession about my hair. And I can’t abide crappy shampoo’s. And that I mainly use natural shampoo bars, which are like natural handcrafted soap but enriched to pamper hair. So I was happy when I stumbled across Lovin’ the Land, on Etsy. They make soaps that get their ingredients from North Carolina, all parts of NC. So, out of curiosity, I bought their Chamomile Lemon Shampoo Bar for light hair (I have dark auburn, but am on a mission to get it to honey blond naturally). I used this on my very dirty hair, to see its cleaning powers, and it does clean, but without frying your hair. It is enriched with sea salt from the NC coast, lemon, honey, and chamomile. I love this shampoo. You may want to condition afterwards if you have dry hair, but if you have normal hair, then you won’t need to. The scent is simple, but quite nice, and the prices are great. The customer service was nice too, and I suggest this bar to those that really love their hair, and to those lovely, long haired beauties on The Long Hair Community. http://www.etsy.com/shop/lovintheland

This has been our big review blowout! Always know that we suggest what we use, so you will not see us just throwing product names and company names at you without prior testing from us. Also check out the our incense at our store, we call these our “Recession Time Incense”. Merry Winter Holidays Everyone!