ohwto equinox

One Hand Washes The Other Equinox solid scent tube

A veritable cornucopia of harvest time goodness! Fresh apple butter, spiced breads and iced pastries, just-pressed cider warmed with ginger and mulling spice, roasted figs, berries, pomegranates, bonfire smoke, amber, and patchouli.

Equinox was part of One Hand Washes The Other's (henceforth known as OHWTO) Halloween release in 2012. I picked up 5 of the new scents from that release as well as several of the returning Halloween scents from 2011 and about eleventy billion other solid scents, all of which I'll be reviewing in due time.

In the tube Equinox smells fruity and spicy and lightly sweet. The mulling spices and apple cider are the main notes I get. On skin it's a bit less spicy, surprisingly, and I can smell the apple butter, the berries, the ginger, and just a hint of sweet smokiness. A few minutes later I smell something a bit orangey, or perhaps that's the pomegranate? It sort of smells like a mug of hot cider with an orange slice floating in it. The amber and patchouli don't make much of an appearance to my nose, or maybe they're just blended well enough that they support the other notes without screaming out themselves. Either way I'm happy about it, as those are two of my least favorite notes in perfume. This does border on scented candle occasionally, but I think that's a personal thing - almost all of these spiced apple cidery- kind of scents bring that to mind for me. But I keep buying them, so clearly it's not a deterrent.

This doesn't have a lot of throw, but I think that's the norm with solid perfumes so I don't hold it against OHWTO. I have a few of their scents that excel in that category, but by and large they're more "personal" scents, and that's fine. This is, and OHWTO's solid scents are as a whole, a bit longer-lasting than most other solids I've tried. I do take the tube with me during the day so I can reapply, but I only do so once or twice a day as opposed to every two hours with some other solid scents.

Would I buy it again? Yes, with some reservations (see below). I like the scent a lot and I love her products - they're a good size for a reasonable price, I love the twist-up tube format, they're easy to carry around in your purse or a pocket, and they're reasonably long-lasting for a solid scent.

The reservations: I've been ordering from OHWTO for years and have always been really happy to do so. But recently (the last year or so) the turn-around time has gotten ridiculous and it really puts me off from placing orders. Current TAT is stated as 18-20 days on the website, but my most recent order for scents from her winter release was placed on December 5th and I've yet to get a shipping notification (ed. note: I got a shipping notification on 1/18), so TAT can run longer than that.

Does this prevent me from ordering from OHWTO? No, but the super-long TAT does limit how often I order. When I first started ordering from this shop I wouldn't hesitate to buy just one or two solid scents any time they caught my eye, but now I pretty much only order when she releases new collections, so two or three times a year. And it annoys me every time I do, because I know I'll be waiting at least a month to get my products. It's not great. It's not a total dealbreaker, but it is something to consider.