Another photo lead review! Methods are much simpler for bath products as I just... use them and if there's anything out of the ordinary I note it when discussing performance. For example: With soaps assume I took it into the bath or shower with me and washed with them. Ez pz.
I do want to note all of these got at least a week of rest time before the reviews. In terms of packaging, the packaging worked well with no apparent leaks and I can get the product out easily. If there's anything out of the norm with it I'll note it in the individual reviews.
I also want to cover why the photo above has 6 products in it but I'm only reviewing three: I've gotten Suc bath products a variety of ways. The YIAC, CYD lotion and Afterglow soap were sent to me as press samples. I purchased the Lime Tree lotion, Glittertrash soap, and Huckleberry hair oil. the Acai hair oil was a GWP in one of Suc's many sales.
I'm only doing three reviews because it feels a little redundant to keep reviewing the various scents when the product performs the same for each scent. I decided to focus on scents I'd already reviewed in perfume form (so their scent as a product could be compared to their scent as a perfume) and the scents I liked the best.
Because Afterglow was sent specifically as a press sample I do want to note though: I liked it as a soap scent. It's a rich contrast in milk chocolate and amber and works really well in that form. (For how the soap itself functioned...Go and see my review of Glittertrash down below!).
Also! I need to bring up... some of these scents will very soon not be available for Suc bath products. Just recently, to speed up their TAT, Suc decided they will start limiting the scents their bath products were available in to a handful of scents they plan to frequently rotate. As of this post everything is still up, but I asked Andrea about it and some time in the next couple of days the change will be coming.
I can't claim the announcement that Suc plans to limit the scents their products come in didn't come as a disappointment to me: One of the big draws of Suc's bath products over the bath products offered by other companies was the wide variety of scents you could get them in.
I'm very picky about what I like scents for soaps and lotions vs personal scents... so it was a big draw being able to get a product in a particular scent I personally felt worked well for it. Now there is some concern that scents that are personal favorites of mine, but aren't particularly popular, won't be available in the forms I think work best for them.
I totally understand Suc wanting to speed up TAT for the purpose of scalability. It makes sense! But I do wonder if there's space for a yearly event where you can go into a separate processing queue and get their bath products in whatever currently-available scents you like. Kind of like how some houses do resurrection events. I think this would let there be a best of both worlds where Suc normally gets a fast TAT, but every so often there's an opportunity for fans of specific scents to restock products in those scents.
The products covered in today's review are:
- Buttercream Lotion [ store link ]
- Whipped Soap [ store link ]
- Hair and Body oil [ store link ]
Buttercream Lotion (You’re in a Cult, Call Your Dad)
Texture: Sucreabeille’s buttercream lotion has a texture like a mainstream hair conditioner. It’s slightly more watery than I generally like my lotions. Once applied it takes a bit to sink into the skin - the initial water/oil sinks in relatively quickly but it leaves a layer that feels a bit odd. On most body parts it is a little slippery/oily feeling to the touch. However on more tactilely sensitive body parts - like hands - it felt almost sticky. Kind of like what it feels like when you have olive oil on your hands and rinse them with water but don’t use soap.
As a note on texture: with the two scents I tried Buttercream Lotion in (You’re in a Cult, Call Your Dad) and Lime Tree) there was some variation in texture. YIAC,CYD is as was described above - Lime Tree however had a slightly ‘clumpy’ texture and seemed less occluding/moisturizing. I spoke about this with Andrea and she mentioned it could be a batching issue they were having while determining how to speed up production times, or it could be the lime essential oils in Lime Tree reacting with the lotion ingredients.
Performance: I found it slightly too heavy a lotion for facial use - I was using it as a night cream but I started breaking out so I discontinued it. However, it is not heavy/occluding enough for use on the areas dried out by my psoriasis.
What I liked the buttercream lotion best as was a night-time foot lotion. It locked in enough moisture to help treat my dry heels without over-moisturizing my feet. Also the longer period for sinking it was nice as it gave my feet a little ‘slip’ while settling into bed.
Official Notes/Scent Analysis: Flannel, Sedona trees, Bergamot tea, snickerdoodle cookies
YIAC, CYD is a scent I have previously reviewed in perfume form [ here ].
In terms of this lotion the scent is the best part. It’s heavily scented and the perfume’s character is stabilized in the heavier form of lotion. I get substantially more snickerdoodle cookies, and longer lasting juniper trees in the lotion form. Overall, the lotion form of the scent is better balanced, more stable, and richer than the perfume was.
Verdict: In my opinion the best thing about the Buttercream Lotion was the wide variety of scents it was offered in. In terms of performance I’d put it on par with, or slightly worse than mainstream lotions… but the absolutely staggering scent variety got me to purchase it in the Sucreabeille scents I just had to have in lotion form. With Suc restricting the amount of scents offered I will be substantially less likely to purchase Buttercream Lotion in its current formulation unless it happens to line up to a scent I badly want in a lotion with their rotations.
Whipped Soap (Glittertrash)
Texture: So, whipped soap is a product that I’d not tried before I got into indies. Apparently textures can vary wildly. Sucreabeille’s texture is like… imagine butter, but not oily. Just soft. Sort of like soft wax. It’s quite firm but you can easily use your finger to scrape out the desired amount from the pot.
The soap is smooth without any particular addins in it. It’s white in color and doesn’t seem to have any added dyes etc.
Performance: I’ve tried this soap three ways: Directly on skin, with a wash cloth, and with a shower pouf.
Directly on skin you need a fair amount of the product for a full bath. It creates a creamy, slightly ‘thick’ feeling foam in a thin layer on your skin. This is probably the way I’d most discourage using the soap in as it takes substantially more soap than the other methods.
When used with a wash cloth it takes a medium amount of the soap to get a nice, slightly fluffy lather. This lather is of the consistency where it’d be nice for using for a shaving lather. It’s sufficient for showering or bathing.
Where this whipped soap really shines though is in a shower pouf. It forms a ridiculous amount of foam. Like a cat tail opening up amount of foam. You only need a pretty small amount (about the length of the last joint on my finger, and one-half centimeter thick) to get a ton of foam for washing your body.
I haven’t found the soap to be drying or irritating - I’d say it performs pretty standard as a soap. It’ll get you clean, but won’t strip your skin down quite like a castile soap would. Good for daily body wash use.
Official Notes/Scent Analysis:Watermelon Blow-Pops, baby powder, fistfulls of sticky white cake, last night's champagne and coconut cream.
I’ve reviewed Glittertrash as a perfume [ here ].
In comparison to the perfume the whipped soap goes light on the watermelon… but the powder and coconut cream really, really shine. It smells like a rich coconut, white musk. The champagne is the primary glittery component and adds a ‘sparkle’ the scent. The cake is there but fairly subdued.
I really like this scent as a soap. The clean and sugary nuances to it feel really great in a bath context.
Verdict: I like this as a whipped soap! I’ll probably always have at least one pot of this whipped soap on hand. It’s very nice to be able to meter out the exact amount of soap you need. I also love that the fact that it’s in a pot means you don’t have to deal with soap melting. It is recommended to keep water out of the pot as best you can, but generally I find it much easier to care for than bar soap.
In regards to scent Glittertrash is one I can see possibly buying again in the future if/when Suc rotates the bath products to include it under their new system.
Hair Oil (Huckleberry)
Texture: A very thick, smooth oil. I can’t emphasize how great the texture is on this oil - it’s like as close as you could get to honey while still being an oil. I haven’t tried it on skin, but on hair a tiny amount goes a long, long way. But as body/hair oils go this one is really quite nice.
Performance: So, this is a product that could be used several ways. It almost didn’t occur to me that it could be used a massage oil until I started writing this… but I suspect it would be a good once since it’s so thick and has great slip to it.
The primary way I’ve been using this as a hair product. It can function two ways, as a deep conditioning hair mask and as a styling product.
As a styling product: I have very short hair (and undercut at about the length most men wear theirs). It’s a bit of a struggle to balance the oil in such a way that I have enough oil to evenly distribute it over the hair but little enough oil that my hair doesn’t end up looking greasy. I apply it by placing a small amount between my hands and then rubbing my hands together vigorously and then working the oil through my hair.
As a conditioning mask: It’s worked really well! I have highlights in my hair in particular one big streak I’m trying to take as light as possible. It was a little frizzy when I first had to bleached but a deep conditioning treatment once or twice a week with Suc’s hair oil has worked wonders on it.
I apply it the same way I would as a styling product but use substantially more of the oil. I focus on the dryer, more processed areas of my hair than the ‘virgin’ hair I have.
Official Notes/Scent Analysis: Wild huckleberries picked from a cedar forest in a misty, wet morning. Oakmoss, rain and cloudy skies
I’ve reviewed this scent as a perfume [ here ].
In the thick hair/body oil form the scent is more stable and more subtle elements of it come through. I get more of the cedar, more of the oakmoss, and more of the ozonic qualities than I did as a perfume. It smells a little less autumnal than the perfume did and a little more foresty… but I still quite like it! I’ve found the scent to be long lasting and pervasive when used in my hair with it remaining very strong for 3-4 hours and then continuing to scent my hair for 6-8 hours at a somewhat more subtle level.
Verdict: Of the Sucreabeille bath and body products I’ve tried this is my favorite one. The oil is so thick, rich, heavily scented, and long-lasting-in-terms-of-scent that I am quite impressed with it. While I haven’t used it on skin it has worked well as a hair conditioning treatment for me. As the photo shows I already upsized it from the little GWP size to the full size. Once I work through the scents I have I will probably re-purchase in whatever scents are available at the time.
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