Friday, December 1, 2017

Queen B Bath & Beauty

These products were provided free from Queen B Bath & Beauty. All opinions my own.


Brooke, the owner and proprietor behind Queen B Bath & Beauty on Etsy, reached out about featuring and reviewing her handcrafted soaps and bath items and I was excited to give them a whirl. 

Bleeding Heart Artisan Shea Butter Soap Bar- Notes: Pomegranate, peach, night blooms and amber. $6.26
Inspired by Wednesday Addams, this bar of soap contains shea butter, coconut and palm oils, glycerin and oat and wheat proteins. It is a lovely fruity floral fragrance that smells flirty and sweet. The pomegranate and peach meld wonderfully, juicy and fresh, not too tart. The florals are wild and rambling and dark and not too heady or overpowering. This soap feels slick and rubbery, easy to lather and highly fragrant. I love how it felt on the skin, very slippery and moisturizing without any tightness or residue. I can tell this soap would easily turn into a pile of gelatinous goosh if not kept dry between uses. All soaps should have a place to rest with good drainage but this glycerin heavy soap definitely requires this. It was a joy to bathe with.

Bootiful Night is no longer in the Etsy store but a quick run down of the scent, it reminds me of hayrides and white flowers. A pretty fragrance wreathed in leaves the colors of a sunset.



Beard & Body Bar in Francois (the artist)- Notes: Toasted spices, vanilla, citrus and lavender. $7.24 (bottom bar)
Francois is one refined gentleman. The spices are peppery and woodsy, soft with sweet vanilla. The citrus leans to aged bergamot and the lavender blooms like tiny woods much like the spice. I feel like this is a brilliant unisex scent. And it smells very familiar. I can't quite put my finger on it but I know I like it. 

Oogie Boogie- Notes: A blend of trick and treats. ($7.13)
This one is the top bar and is very beautiful. It is hard to see but the larger pieces on top have jack o'lanterns embedded into the circular slices. It is a general fresh yet earthy scent with some candy wrapper sweetness. Like Oogie Boogie's cave lair and roulette wheels are strewn with leaves and candy corn nibs. 


I don't see this Honey Lavender scent on the site either but it is my favorite of the bunch. I love the scent, sweet and soft and full of lavender charm. The mold is gorgeous and the colors are soothing. 


Not sure what this guy is scented in but he is a dapper skully and smells like a dapper man: mahogany, black pepper, supple leather and musk. It generates a nice lather easily and was a joy to soap with. 


Death by Candy Sugar Scrub Cubes (no price but there are some lip versions in the Etsy store for $12.81) are adorable. I have not yet had my sugar scrub in a cube form. I almost want to pick them up and nibble the edge they look and smell so yummy. The candy is extremely vibrant and full of citrus fruits: juicy oranges, zesty lemons and limes and a mouth puckering ruby red grapefruit. Sugar is generously sprinkled on these mouth watering fruit segments. I picked out one cube to use, mushed it between my fingers with water and scrubbed my feet, legs and arms with it. The sugar grains are on the finer side but the density is really nice. It felt good on the skin and polished it up pleasantly. 



Raspberry & Sweet Lemon Whipped Body Polish ($15.56) comes in two sizes, 4 ounce and 8 ounce and this is the larger size. This is meant as a bubbling scrub type of formula where it cleans and polishes in one go. It smells of bright sunny lemons and sweet candied raspberries with a touch of soft floral. Beautiful and uplifting and perfect for a spring or summer day. The texture of the sugar in this one is a bit more coarse and combined with the cranberry seeds, made for excellent exfoliation. While the sugar eventually dissolved, those cranberry seeds kept working. It did bubble and foam up as it is a soapy scrub.



Pumpkin Spice Bubbly Bar- Notes: Pumpkin and coffee with frothy sweetened caramel cream. $5.94
This Pumpkin Spice bar is not only freaking adorable but it also smells amazing. The pumpkin is robust with spice and sweetness. I don't get much coffee but I got a ton of bubbles. It crumbled easily under running water and created mounds of fluffy white bubbles and its strong pumpkin spice scent remained a good long while. I would buy this again in a heartbeat.


Mad Hatter Magic Bubbly Bath Tea ($8.68) is a secret blend but I can pick up some sweet black tea and subtle fruits. Once it hits the water, candied roses join the tea and fruits to create a truly realistic bath tea indeed. It foamed and fizzed softly and created a milky pinkish purple water that relaxed and nourished. 

Overall I am thrilled with my first experience with Queen B Bath & Beauty products. Here is a break down of some general pros and cons:

Pros:
- A nice variety of products from soaps and scrubs to lotions, bath bombs, bubble bars and even gift sets.
- Quality packaging on most products (bags, containers and such).
- Nice branding and theme.
- A gorgeous array of floral and fruity scents which can be hard to come by.
- Great customer service.
- Highly fragrant offerings.
- High quality products.

Cons:
- Some items came wrapped differently than others of the same type (soaps, bath melts) so not sure if it was because it was sent to me to test or if it would be that way when ordered by customers.
- Shipping is pricy due to it coming from Canada, one $7 soap has a $12 shipping charge which is steep.
- Lack of some scent descriptions may make it hard for someone to decide if it would be a fragrance they would enjoy.
- Some products are a bit on the higher end of pricing for my general Etsy budget for bath and body products, combined with the high shipping it makes some things hard to purchase. For example, one large scrub would cost $32.32 with shipping.

Have you tried any hidden Etsy gems lately? What are you scubbing and exfoliating with lately?

7 comments:

  1. Whooooo, low whistle at them steep prices. Can't believe Sandra takes it in the wallet from U.S. shipping so often, I've been eyeing up a few Canadian Bath and body shops but the shipping cost makes me pause.
    Anyway, as for the goodies themselves, you scored. Each is interesting, loving the little bath scrub truffles especially. I'm continuing to sample my way through the scrub, bar and whipped soap world happily.

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    1. Yeah... it is a little much for stateside but I bet it is more affordable for Canadian readers, perhaps. Or is shipping even still steep within Canada? I have no idea.

      Glad you are enjoying the indie bath and body wares. I like them too. So much more fun that Calgon.

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  2. My favorite part of this post was seeing sugar scrub cubes. You just don't see many of those around. I used to make them back in my own soap days! That pumpkin bubbly bar looks awesome too.

    ~Deb

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    1. I have never seen the sugar cube scrubs! They are really cute. They must be more intensive to make? You used to make them?! I could use some in Cranberry Spice please. :-) The pumpkin bar was perfect. I kinda wish I had it to do all over again. Super cute too. Really, the whole package.

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    2. I remember the ones I used to make used melt-n-pour soap base, and then I think you just add enough extra oils to keep it all from becoming hard again. I tried making bath bombs once but failed and never had enough ambition to try again. lol I did do goat milk bath salts though!

      ~Deb

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  3. Ugh, those little sugar scrub cubes are darn adorable - they look like little sparkling petit fours. I love the pumpkin bubble bar, and I'm even more pleased to hear that it smells like actual pumpkin! Lush's sparkly pumpkin guy smells like juniper and will leave you spackled in glitter - I like this less is more approach. :)

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    1. They do! And with the yummy lemon scent I kinda want to eat them. Yes, that pumpkin bubble bar might have very well been the highlight of the box. I am kinda bummed it is gone and done. I might have to place an order just to have that again. I like juniper but probably not in a pumpkin shape (weird?!) and DEFINITELY without the mounds of glitter. Good grief! I do not need to be looking like I rolled around in my daughters' craft projects.

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