**REVIEW** Vanilla Grapefruit & Coconut (fragrances by Making Cosmetics)

Instead of doing separate posts, I'm going to tell you about 2 fragrances from Making Cosmetics, all in one.

Vanilla Grapefruit & Coconut

First, my personal favorite of the two, is the Natural Vanilla Grapefruit fragrance.

Before I go on, let me share the Seller's description (with my boldfacing parts I want to highlight):

Blend of natural and synthetic fragrance, miscible in water and oil. High amounts may cloudy a clear product. Water-insoluble. CAS# none. INCI Name: Fragrance. Odor: Earthy, warm but fruity scent, well balanced. Use: Typical concentration in creams and lotions 0.2-0.5%, higher for shampoos and conditioners (1-5%). Miscible with other fragrances. Potential for discoloration of final product (dependent on cosmetic ingredients used). High amounts may cloudy a clear product. For external use only. Applications: All kinds of personal care products (e.g. creams, lotions, cleansers, shampoos, shower gels, conditioners).

I'm not sure I agree with the "fruity" part of the odor description. "Fruity" makes me think of "sweet" and this is not at all cloying. I smell the earth tones of the vanilla and the rind of grapefruit. It's a really nice combination.

The fragrance is so nice that I backed out of plans to use this as an additive to homemade personal care items. Instead, I am going to be using it almost solely as a perfume. Not only is the scent very nice, it lasts . Women who are older (okay, 50-ish) might notice how body chemistry changes affect perfume wear. For me, fragrances don't typically last forever the way they used to. Most go faint after and hour, then disappear almost entirely. This is why I have been using natural oils for fragrance. This one really lasts well and after I've had it on today for about 6 hours, I can still catch a whiff of it.

I will be ordering more of this so that I can (maybe) bring myself to use it in some hair care and bathing products. Probably, I will just keep using it all up as a perfume though! Also I have to mention that it takes very little of this to get a nice scent effect.

The Coconut fragrance is very plainly identifiable as coconut, no doubt. While some might like that for a perfume, it's my preference to use it as I intended with the Vanilla Grapefruit. I already added some to a hair moisturizer and I love the smell. The fragrance seems more potent than the V.G. scent. That might just be because coconut is such a clear fragrance. What I like about that is it took just 2 drops of it to scent one of my 18-oz bottles of (store bought) shampoo. The shampoo was originally fragrance-free, but I wanted something that smelled nice in the shower. I am going to also be adding the coconut to one of my scentless hair moisturizers that I am going to be using to make a leave-in*.

Here is the Seller's description of the Coconut fragrance:

Description: Blend of natural and synthetic fragrance, miscible in water and oil. High amounts may cloudy a clear product. Water-insoluble. CAS# none. INCI Name: Fragrance. Odor: Scent of coconuts. Use: Typical concentration in creams and lotions 0.2-0.5%, higher for shampoos and conditioners (1-5%). Miscible with other fragrances. Potential for discoloration of final product (dependent on cosmetic ingredients used). High amounts may cloudy a clear product. For external use only. Applications: All kinds of personal care products (e.g. creams, lotions, cleansers, shampoos, shower gels, conditioners).

Totally agree with their description of the fragrance. It's straight coconut, no frills, no distractions.

I could see the coconut fragrance being excellent in sesame or some other very light scented oil to use as a massage oil. The scent is definitely soothing and pleasant.  I like the idea of having that scent in hair products and bathing soaps (especially if I follow up with organic coconut oil as my moisturizer). This would also be nice as a room fragrance.

I think these are both wonderful products for adding to products or using as fragrances. I'm pretty happy that I was able to use part of my birthday gift certificates to try them out.

Speaking of "trying out" products, be aware that both these fragrances are labeled with this: "Item is Non-Returnable, Consists of Raw Materials".  And Seller tells you that right up front.

I also saw a notice of a "subscribe and save" offer for Prime members. It sounds like a great arrangement for thing like the Vanilla Grapefruit fragrance (since I would actually re-order this), however, since the Seller's products are not Prime eligible... :-(

If you are at all into being a cosmetics kitchenista (TM) Haha.. definitely check these out.

Peace
--Free

*I found several wonderful recipes online for leave-in conditioners. (I have to alert you to the awesome Naturally Curly site. Their recipes can be searched by options.) Some online recipes were from scratch, using pantry items, but my favorites were the ones using store-bought products. After checking out several recipes, I combined a few to come up with this for my use. (Keep in mind that I have, apparently, 4b/4c hair. It's very dry and kinky. I aim to ease breakage and add as much non-oily moisture as I can.)

In a spray bottle that will adjust to a fine mist (I got mine at Walmart for around a dollar), combine the following:

• 8 oz water (bottled if your tap water is hard or otherwise not great)
• apprx 1 Tbls Aussie Moist 3-in-1
• apprx 1 tsp oil (I used olive oil in one blend and in another I used non-fractionated coconut)
• a couple drops of fragrance oil

I tried the spray with the olive oil for just after I'd shampooed because it was a little heavier. For between shampoo upkeep, I did need to use a little more on my crown and nape.  I will be using the spray with the non-fractionated oil.

Next post, I will have to tell you how my Cherry Lola hair treatment went...