arcana soft hearted

All tenderness and compassion. This gentle union of pink grapefruit, sweet lavender, green lotus and softest musk is touched off with an arterial spark of black pepper.

In the imp, Soft Hearted is all lavender and soft grapefruit. I usually find grapefruit pretty abrasive, but this is really gentle. On skin the grapefruit gets stronger, and it's a bit more juicy/zesty. The musk makes an appearance, but true to the description it is very soft. I get a hint of black pepper but it's not overpowering at all - it just sort of adds a bit of sharpness to the scent. I don't really know what green lotus smells like, so I'm hard pressed to say if I'm getting it or not.

Once it's fully dry, the lavender has mostly faded and the grapefruit starts to ride the line between "fresh and zesty" and "cleaning product." I've found this to be the case with nearly every grapefruit scent I've ever tried, though, so I can't necessarily fault this particular blend - it may just be my skin chemistry. The end result here is not nearly as soft and lovely as sniffing the oil straight from the imp, which is disappointing - not because it's a bad scent, but because I was hoping I'd finally found a grapefruit that I'd like. That being said, I definitely don't dislike this - it's just not quite right for me.

Would I buy it again? Probably not. I love it in the imp, but on my skin the grapefruit goes to astringent and the lavender isn't present enough for my liking.

Edit: I'd written this one off and went about my day, but when I sniffed my wrist again a few hours later I found that I actually like what it turned into. The grapefruit settled and I think the green lotus came out, providing a bit of a floral tone. It ended up becoming a soft, musky, slightly citrusy scent - not bad after all. I'm still not going to get a bottle of it, but it worked out better in the end than my initial impressions led me to believe it would.

Available from: Wherever Arcana oils are sold - Magical Omaha and The Soap Box Co among other places, or you can order direct from Julia using the contact info at Arcana Soaps. Soft Hearted was part of Arcana's Valentine's release, and is still available as of this posting.