Fortune Cookie Soap Winter 2014 Old Fashioned Family Christmas Soap Box Review

My Fortune Cookie Soap Winter Soap Box finally made it! I was so eager to get this finally, and start smelling everything! My Winter box came really early compared to the Fall box, so I was pretty excited. They did a similar thing to the Fall box where they had 4 possible Whipped Cream scents you could possibly get, and already I think I like this box much better than the Fall box!

The Fortune Cookie Soap box is a quarterly subscription that is seasonal. So you subscribe, the box arrives right before the season it's for starts officially, then in about two weeks after the box arrives, they put the new collection of scents from the box on their website for everyone to purchase. Getting the box gives you a sneak peek of everything before anyone else can buy the products! The scents and products for the season are available for about three months, then they're replaced with the next season's offerings.

The Winter Fortune Cookie Soap box shipped via USPS and was delivered in 2 days from Oklahoma to California.

Here's how the box came packaged, you can see the Hydrate Me was a little melty.

The info card for each soap box, always is very nicely printed with the product photos, names, and descriptions. On the back is a unique code for $10 off your next purchase.

Moose Mug Cuticle Butter - "Rich cream, egg, and a touch of nutmeg."

I do like the eggnog scent of this cuticle butter, and you can smell the nutmeg at the very end. It has a very low melting point, and basically melts into a cuticle oil as soon as you put it on your finger and rub it in. It's about as effective as most other cuticle products, and does smell good, so I expect I'll use this throughout the winter as my hands get drier and drier.

Mele Kelekimaka OCD Hand Sanitizer - "Tropical spiced rum, Tahitian vanilla, sprinkled with jasmine petals and twisted woods."

I can't say I love the smell of an artificial alcohol smell with the real alcohol smell of this hand sanitizer together, but once it's dry you can smell the vanilla and the twisted woods. I don't get much of the jasmine, but you can smell the spices of the rum. It's a very warm scent, tropical at first, and then just morphs into a dark vanilla scent.

'Tis The Season to be Mary Fortune Cookie Soap - "A hint of sweet almond with warm swirls of tobacco."

If I stick my nose directly into this soap, I can faintly smell the almond note, but I don't get the tobacco. It just smells like soap to me, not very exciting, probably my least favorite scent of the whole collection.

Sparky Hydrate Me - "Scrumptious vanilla pumpkin waffles topped with brown sugar, pecans and sheets of fresh whipped cream."

This smells really yummy, just like waffles. I haven't had a chance to try a Hydrate Me before, but I have heard so many good things about them. Basically you rub this all over right after showering and don't rinse, and it's ultra hydrating for soft skin. The only thing is that they are super melty, and tend to melt a little, or even completely, in transit during the warm months. I've seen some others of these were very dark colored and some said the coloring actually came off and stained their skin, so I'm glad mine wasn't very pigmented.

Bend Over & I'll Show You Whipped Cream - "Tart cranberry, crisp pine and herbal spruce warmed by clove and a splash of sweet mandarin orange."

OMG I am so glad I got this one! You may know that they randomly sent everyone one of four different scents for the Whipped Cream product, and I absolutely love this one. I think I need it in a perfume, a leave in conditioner, and possibly a foaming hand soap. Seriously, this smells like Christmas in a jar, the orange and cranberry add a very festive fruity touch to background of pine and spruce. It's warm, and yummy, and I think I also need a wax tart. Many wax tarts. I really may buy all the products in this scent.

I Pledge Allegiance, Amen! Shower Steamer - "A brisk and outdoorsy blend of blue spruce and balsam fir, fresh mint and garden herbs."

This scent will be great for if you have a cold, the Shower Steamers are meant to sit in the shower, but not under the water, and as they slowly dissolve from the steam they release the scent. This one smells really strongly of pine and mint, with a hint of herbs.

Fried Pussycat Whipped Soap - "Juicy plum and whipped caramel wrapped in artisan bourbon vanilla and jasmine blossoms."

Out of the jar, this just smells like maybe a little plum and vanilla, but there's definitely the artificial fragrance oil scent to it. Plasticky I guess is the right word for it? The whipped soap is a new product for FCS, and I think they need to seriously tweak the formula. It lost most of its air during transit, and so mine and many others jars were not completely full. And there are so many other companies with better and fluffier whipped soaps that I would probably not bother with this product or scent.

Christmas Bonus Deep Conditioner - "No hints! There's a $50 FCS Gift Certificate up for grabs, so email your best guesses to customerservice [AT] fortunecookiesoap [DOT] com. A winner will be chosen and announced on our Facebook page on December 22nd."

I know exactly what this scent is, I've already sent in my guess, but no hints! I only know because it's something I've smelled before, so good luck everyone!

Overall, I liked this Fortune Cookie Soap box better than the fall one, but there are still some of the scents and products I would not buy. I think my favorite scents are of course Bend Over & I'll Show You, and Sparky. Those are probably the only two I'll buy any other products in, but the rest just isn't that exciting. I love that FCS carries some products many other companies don't but they are so behind other indie companies on some of their product types and scents.

My other problem with the products from the box, but also just in general from FCS, is the packaging. The soap box is many times, people's first foray into their products. And there's no continuity, not everything comes with a label, the jars are completely different, different colors, etc. Pretty much every other indie company has impeccable packaging and beautiful labels, so that FCS doesn't is a little uninviting as a new customer. And a lot of the soap box packaging just looks cheap. I hate the Deep Conditioner jar, it looks so generic and cheap for lack of a better word. It doesn't leave me with a good impression, and I think any potential new customer might be turned off by the look of the packaging with the box products. There are typically only a few kinds of products I'm willing to buy from them because anything else is being done better by other companies.

The quarterly Fortune Cookie Soap box is $19.99 per quarter, and the Winter box looks to still be available, so if you'd like to subscribe, you can do so here. If you use my link for Fortune Cookie Soap, you'll receive $5 off your first $30+ purchase! Just click here to get your first $5 off!

What did you think of the Fortune Cookie Soap Winter Old Fashioned Family Christmas Soap Box? Let me know in the comments!

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