solstice scents cenobite

Solstice Scents Cenobite burnishing glace, body ganache, and perfume oil

(Brought to you by Fez Bunny and some ducks)

A deep Vanilla Bean which has a slight boozy liqueur note on application mixed with a pile of fresh vanilla beans and a sultry, smooth, rich and creamy French Vanilla.  Lovely for layering. This is not a sweet frosting/sugary/buttery vanilla, it is a sophisticated, pure and deeper vanilla bean scent. 

For years I've subscribed to a "Word A Day" email, which is exactly what it sounds like - every day they send you a new and interesting word. Well, today's word was "cenobite," meaning "A member of a religious order living in a monastic community." It seemed only fitting, then, that today's scent should be Cenobite from Solstice Scents.

Cenobite was one of my very first Solstice Scents purchases, and remains one of my favorite perfumes. I love me some vanilla, and it is the ultimate vanilla. However I just recently acquired the ganache and glace, and this review will actually be my first time using them. Let's see how these three all play together, shall we?

The ganache (and this is my first and only ganache from SS so far) has a texture like thick yogurt - it's thinner than Haus of Gloi's pumpkin butters but thicker than your average lotion. The scent in the pot is true to the description, perhaps a bit more on the creamy french vanilla side of things than the perfume and glace. There is a slight cocoa butter-y scent, which is not a bad thing at all, just worth mentioning. Angela notes on the SS website that that cocoa butter scent will die down after a few minutes, and it does, leaving behind pure vanilla. The scent is quite strong and I can easily smell it on myself.

 The ganache pot is small (4 oz) but you don't need much - lightly swiping my finger across the product gave me enough for my entire arm, two swipes for each leg. I don't have terrible dry skin so I don't ever use copious amounts of lotion, though. The formula is nice, absorbs quickly, and isn't greasy or heavy at all. It's not quite as moisturizing as HoG's pumpkin butters, which are still my #1 favorite, but it leaves my skin nice and soft just the same. I can see myself using this more often in warmer weather because it is a bit lighter than the pumpkin butters.

Moving onto the next layer, the glace smells quite a bit different in the bottle than the perfume or the ganache. It's sharper and fruitier.  Once it's on the skin it's closer to the perfume/ganache scent, but not exactly the same. However it does still compliment the ganache and perfume very well, and the scent is very potent. I mean VERY. The glace formula is lovely as usual. I spritzed this on my arms, legs, and chest on top of the ganache and the result is a strong scent. You wouldn't need to put the perfume on if you didn't have it or didn't want to. I'm inclined to say the glace is strong enough to act as a perfume on its own, honestly. It's the most strongly scented glace I've used from SS to date.

But because I love Cenobite and I want to see just how strong a cloud of delicious vanilla I can engulf myself in, I did put the perfume on as well. In the bottle Cenobite is vanilla liquor, not overly sweet at all. Wet on skin it's boozy and a touch fruity but still all vanilla. As it dries more of the creamy french vanilla comes out, but it's still much more like vanilla beans than vanilla frosting. It's never super sweet.

What I've learned here today is that topping the ganache with the glace with the perfume is insane. The scent is ridiculously strong. I love it. Usually perfume oils aren't strong enough to knock over strangers, which is part of what I like about them, and on its own Cenobite isn't. It's potent, yes, and it has great lasting power, but it's not going to make someone three rows back on the bus wonder what that smell is. All three of these together would. Layering them all results in soft skin and a heady haze of vanilla goodness that will last all day.

So, would I buy it again? Absolutely. All three products are wonderful and the scent is one of my favorites. If you're a vanilla fan, you really must give Cenobite a try.