Haus of Gloi Yule Collection Part 1 Review

It's a special edition of Indie Weekends, a little early for the Haus of Gloi Yule collection restocks happening today at noon PST/3PM EST! I may have gone a little overboard with my Haus of Gloi Yule collection Part 1 order...ok really, there can never be enough Haus of Gloi in my life! I got a little of everything, and at least one of every scent, as well as all the Butter Bombs and Lip Balms. So, this will be a really comprehensive review of the whole collection, in various types of products they carry!

If you have no idea what Haus of Gloi is, they are an indie bath and body company based in Oregon, and owned by Matt and Britton. They sell perfumes, scrubs, soaps, pumpkin butters (which are their extremely moisturizing lotions), hair oils, lip balms, and a few other various products. Everything is handmade and their scents are their own original creations. They have a main line of scents that are sold year round, and then they have quarterly seasonal limited edition collections.

Shipping - For this particular review, I placed 4 orders total (indecisive much?) and Haus of Gloi automatically combined them and refunded the extra shipping I paid. It shipped 4 days from when my original order was placed, via USPS 2-Day Priority, and arrived 2 days later. However, when I opened the box, all of my perfumes were missing. So I had to email them about that, and those arrived 11 days after I emailed the first time, and 3 days after I emailed the second time.

The wrapping was so festive I had to take a photo. It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

Product Size - For most products, Haus of Gloi offers them in mini/sample and full size. The only ones that are one size only are the Butter Bombs, Hair Oil, Whipped Soap, and Lip Balms.

Free Samples - Haus of Gloi always includes a free perfume sample with every order.

B is stepping in so lovingly to help me review *some* of these scents for you! He will be giving his expert opinion. You may remember his astute descriptions from the Autumn collection review. Unfortunately, because of the time crunch to get this review up before the restocks today, I had to review the perfumes and a few other items without him.

Butter Bomb:

Gingerbread Butter Bomb - "Warming and ginger snappish!"

I still don't know how Haus of Gloi makes their scents so accurate, but yes, it smells like there is a gingerbread cookie smashed up and put into this bath bomb. I mean that's it, if you held this up to someone without telling them what it was, and they smelled it, they would want to eat it. I even know that it's not edible and I still want to eat it the smell is so delicious. And now I have to learn how to make gingerbread cookies. I think this is my favorite, or at least tied for my favorite.

Marzipan Butter Bomb - "Almost boozy almond with sugar and a touch of rosewater."

This reminds me of Princess Cake. It's this cake I used to get occasionally from a fancy bakery locally, and it was a white cake with some type of filling, but it was covered in marzipan, and I loved the marzipan portion. If you've ever smelled marzipan, it smells exactly like it, but if you've never had it the description is quite accurate. It smells like an almond liqueur and at the very end you get a touch of rose that blends nicely with the scent. Apparently, (I looked it up) marzipan is traditionally flavored with rosewater. And I just love the purple streaks going through the Butter Bomb, such a nice touch.

Silver Fir Butter Bomb - "Almost fruity, dreadfully beautiful and wintery. Rounded out with a base of white cedar and amyris."

You can definitely smell the fir in there, but it's not quite like a Christmas tree scent if that's what you're hoping for in this. The white cedar adds just an extra bit of woodiness to this, but I worry about the strength of the scent with this one. Just smelling it is giving me a bit of a headache, so I would suggest maybe cutting this one in half if you are also sensitive to woody cedar scents.

Sugar Cookie Butter Bomb - "Buttery. Sugary. Cookies!"

Another really accurate scent, just buttery sugar cookies, but an emphasis on the butter note. It's the first thing you pick up on, and it smells almost fatty to me. I like it though, can't get enough baked goods during the holidays, even in my bathtub.

Sugar Plum Butter Bomb - "Plum with soft hints of spice: cinnamon, clove, cardamom and anise."

This one is also really strong, and I will probably only use this half at a time as well. I like plums, but I don't tend to care for plum scents, as they don't smell anything similar, and usually smell really spicy. This one is a little more fruity than most I have smelled, but there's still a hint of the spices. It smells almost like soap to me, like something I've smelled at Bath and Body Works. My least favorite of the bunch, but if you like really fruity smells, you might enjoy this scent.

Hair Oil:

Wintervale Hair Oil - "Snow covered blue spruce boughs, frozen woods, crystalline sugared violets and sharp wintery air, all wrapped around a minty mug of hot cocoa."

I think this is just the perfect scent for a hair oil, it's minty, fresh, a little sweet, and a little florally. The scent seems to last in my hair for quite a while, more than another hair oil I have from them. I usually use about 7-8 drops for my fine, long hair, right out of the shower just on the ends, and that seems to be the perfect amount. And these hair oils can be used for other things, like cuticle oil, but I think using it as a glossing oil to freshly shaved legs right out of the shower would work well too.

B: "I approve." (This was when I specifically asked him how he felt about me putting this in my hair, since it does smell a little different from the soap.)

Lip Balm:

Butter Pecan Lip Balm - "Yummy rum and butter pecan."

Yep, rum, butter, and pecans. There's really not much to say about this one, it's exactly what you expect. I like it, but it's not my favorite of the bunch.

Cocoa Mandarin Lip Balm - "Bittersweet chocolate and mandarin orange."

This is the perfect replication of the scent of those orange chocolate balls, that you had to whack against a table to break into "slices", remember those? Yeah this lip balm nails the flavor of that. It's one of my favorites, the chocolate flavor is accurate and not at all artificial like you get with some other lip balms.

Peppermint Sugar Cookie Lip Balm - "Sugar cookies spiked with fresh mint."

Yum. I now need to make these supposed peppermint sugar cookies, because this lip balm is delicious. I've never seen a recipe for peppermint sugar cookies, but now I need to find one. This lip balm smells really delicious, sugary, minty, and like a baked good. It might be my favorite, because it's sort of like a traditional lip balm with the mint, but then you get the cookie part and it's just perfect for winter.

Vanilla Chai Lip Balm - "Spicy chai and sweet vanilla cream."

You don't really get any vanilla from this, just chai spice. I think it has the strongest scent of all the lip balms too, and I can sometimes be sensitive to strong spice smells. But once it's on your lips, the spicy mostly goes away. So tread with caution, not for the faint of heart chai lovers. This is not your Starbucks chai latte smell! It's BAM, chai!

The description got a little complicated, so I'll give you the full transcription:
B: "It's spicy but not like hot spicy. Spicy like spices."
Me: "That's 4 spices in there, is that enough?"
B: "Yeah, that's how spicy it was."

Winter Rose - "Red rose and soft vanilla."

Smelling this out of the tube I was getting worried there would be too much rose in it for my liking, but once it's on your lips it's very very subtle. The vanilla softens it, and makes it a much more pleasant rosy lip balm. Good, but again not my favorite.

Lip Tint:

Rosy Lipped Lip Tint - "Pink grapefruit and fir needle essential oil."

As a lip tint, this one barely does anything. It looks like maybe you went outside in the snow and wind for 5 minutes, and your lips got a tiny bit pinker. But the scent is an interesting combination of two winter scents and flavors, but to me it smells like a little too much fir needle. It needs more of the grapefruit, and I found this one to be the worst texture of the bunch. Harder than the regular lip balms, not as melty, and a little grainy.

Perfume Oil: 

Eggnoggin Perfume Oil - "Cream, sugar and a shot of dark rum topped with fresh grated nutmeg."

As a perfume, Eggnoggin is a genuinely accurate eggnog scent, I can pick out the nutmeg right off the top. It's as if you made yourself a cup of eggnog and grated some fresh nutmeg right over the top. As that dissipates, the creamy egg note comes through. There's a touch of rum, but not much, not as much as with the pumpkin butter. This scent didn't last long on me, which seems to be the case with most food scents.

Fancy Bread Perfume Oil - "Ripe banana, roasted nuts and brown sugar folded into a delicious quick bread."

On the skin, I get mostly the nuts and brown sugar out of this, but with a touch of the banana bread. It's a very warm baked gourmand, but as the wear time increases it starts to smell more like baked goods in general, especially muffins, but without the banana component. Good for those who don't like banana scents, it disappears pretty quickly and just smells like you've been in the kitchen baking muffins all day.

Hearth Perfume Oil - "The warm glowing center of home. Autumns last apple pickings, warm bread, orange rind, various fire roasted nuts, cracked black pepper all nailed down by an oozing sticky benzoin."

Now this I was not expecting to love so much! I might want this in a whipped soap too, or a full size. It's apples, oranges, a touch of pepper, and it just smells like the fruit of fall. If you wanted to like Olde Cider Haus, but wanted something more fruity, this is it. There's none of the cider spices, but just a fruity apple scent with a hint of orange. After dry down, you can smell the benzoin, which is supposed to have a similar scent as vanilla.

Parkin Perfume Oil - "Glorious ginger cakes celebrating Guy Fawkes Day! Brown sugar, black treacle, oats, a peculiar blend of white spices tossed with chopped roasted chestnuts and coated with the lightest of icings."

I get a hint of ginger, brown sugar, and the icing. The ginger is very good, it can be hard to get an accurate ginger scent, but this one is very good. Definitely a foodie scent, but I don't think I'd personally want this in anything other than a perfume. I'm sure the pumpkin butter would smell atrocious on me, too spicy for a hand lotion for me. But a perfume, it's nice, it's almost like you combined everything in Fancy Bread but the banana, and the spices in Sweet Potato Treat.

Plotter's Breakfast Perfume Oil - "Oatey porridge, stove smoke, kindling wood, a hint of gunpowder and pinch of sweet pipe tobacco."

The perfume smells almost exactly the same as the pumpkin butter, and it's gunpowder and smoke on the skin. Definitely not something I'd be interested in wearing, but I bet it would smell better on men. And it smells pretty good layered with Snow Wolf. As a guys scent that blend would be perfect for a campfire in the mountains scent.

Rosy Cheeked Perfume Oil - "Pink grapefruit, fir needles, juniper berries, rosemary, a sprig of parsley and bright winter lilies."

I can pick out all of the notes of this one except the lilies. It's a very tart wintery garden scent. Unfortunately, I think on some this could easily turn into a cleaning product scent with how much grapefruit there is, and it gets close to that on me. But, this one would work well as a whipped soap, if you're like me and like specific clean fresh scents for your soap.

Snow Wolf Perfume Oil - "Bristling and prowling, lonesome and haunting. Three howling firs, white frankincense, vanilla bean husk, tainted by droplets of blood cedar."

The cedar is so strong in this that it almost makes my throat itch. I have no idea what that means, but it's definitely a fir and cedar scent, very cold, but I did a little experimenting and it smells really beautiful with a little Wintervale over the top. Not as much cedar when they are combined, and I think it makes it a little more wearable for women. On it's own, this would be a good winter men's scent. I might try to see if I can put this on B when he's not looking.

Sweet Potato Treat Perfume Oil - "Sweet potatoes with mild spices, butter and brown sugar baked off with marshmallows."

As a perfume, this scent is a little too spicy for my taste, but you can smell just about everything. The butter, the brown sugar, a hint of toasty marshmallow, and the tinge of sweetness from the sweet potatoes. The initial spiciness does wear off a little, so if you enjoy typically spicy and sweet fall scents, you'll probably enjoy this one. Fans of pumpkin scents will probably also like it, since it smells pretty similar, the same kinds of spices. After a few minutes the butter and brown sugar take over, leaving you with just a yummy fall/winter food dish kind of scent. 

Three Treasures Perfume Oil - "Sacred gifts of frankincense, myrrh and gold. Smoldering with warmth and brightened with a touch of mandarin rind."

I don't think I know what frankincense and myrrh smell like on their own, but to me they're kind of exotic, and like an incense scent. The mandarin keeps it from being too strong, and adds a citrus to it that it needs to be out of one note territory. It's probably not something I would buy if I was able to smell it first, but I can appreciate the perfume. As wear time increases, the mandarin cuts through the other notes and starts to make it a little less heavy. After a while though, this actually turns into something I feel I could wear, definitely not something I would wear all the time, but occasionally.

Wintervale Perfume Oil - "Snow covered blue spruce boughs, frozen woods, crystalline sugared violets and sharp wintery air, all wrapped around a minty mug of hot cocoa."

Oh, this just smells lovely as a perfume. It's not quite as minty fresh as with the whipped soap and hair oil, but I get a little more of the violets and spruce. It's almost like a minty floral in this form, so if you don't like that description, stay away from this one. But to me, it just smells like the crisp air of winter, right after a snow. It's got a touch of sweetness, and this may be my winter long scent. I might need a full size of this. Incidentally, this one was the one I accidentally ordered two samples of. But now that I asked for a refund for the extra since it was still missing with my missing perfumes, I might just get a full size.

Pumpkin Butter: 

Eggnoggin Pumpkin Butter - "Cream, sugar and a shot of dark rum topped with fresh grated nutmeg."

I usually like food type scents for lotion, but this one didn't work for me. It smells good in the jar, like sugary cream, but on the skin it turns weird for me. I can't tell if it's just the rum coming out, or the nutmeg, but it's a little strange. I think if you really love eggnog this could work for you, but if you're getting it just because you think it might be good, you might want to pass.

B: "Smells sugary."

Fancy Bread Pumpkin Butter - "Ripe banana, roasted nuts and brown sugar folded into a delicious quick bread."

In the jar, it smells exactly like banana bread, and on the skin you get more of an artificial banana smell. But you can still smell the nuts and sugar, so if you don't mind artificial banana scents (which, any banana scent is artificial, but you get my point. Like candy that's banana flavored, that kind of smell) then you might like this one. Or if you just like smelling like food, this scent might be for you.

B: "Smells like weird butter."

Plotter's Breakfast Pumpkin Butter - "Oatey porridge, stove smoke, kindling wood, a hint of gunpowder and pinch of sweet pipe tobacco."

This was the one thing I accidentally ordered in my rush to get my order in before things sold out. I thought it might work, but it's far too smoky for me to be used as a lotion. This might be ok for a guy, but I can't get B to use lotion, so this might have to go to another home.

B: "Smells like smoky something."

Sweet Potato Treat Pumpkin Butter - "Sweet potatoes with mild spices, butter and brown sugar baked off with marshmallows."

I was a little worried about this one when I smelled it in the jar, I thought I wouldn't like it. Once it's on the skin though, you can smell the spices, and the butter and brown sugar, with a touch of marshmallow. I thought this one paired nicely with Solstice Scents Owlcreek Aleworks perfume, so layering with those two scents works really well together.

B: "Like a really sweet pastry."

Here's the texture of the pumpkin butters. They always have a light cream color, and are thick and moisturizing. I like to use these on my hands occasionally during the day, but mostly I use them overnight on my hands. I keep one on my bedside table and use it almost every night after I wash my face, since that dries out my hands.

Whipped Soap:

Eggnoggin Whipped Soap - "Cream, sugar and a shot of dark rum topped with fresh grated nutmeg."

In whipped soap form, this scent smells mostly like the rum note. Possibly a touch of cream, but I think it will work well as a soap, and their whipped soaps have such a great formula. I tend to prefer food type scents for lotion, and fresh clean scents for soap, but I wanted to be a little adventurous with a food scent for the whipped soap.

B: "Smells sugary."

Snow Wolf Whipped Soap - "Bristling and prowling, lonesome and haunting. Three howling firs, whitened frankincense, vanilla bean husk, tainted by droplets of blood cedar."

The whipped soap version of this scent smells really strongly of pine. Open the jar, and you're instantly transported to a cabin deep in the snowy woods, high up on a mountain, and you open the door and are hit with this smell. I think it's very crisp and clean smelling, which I like in a soap scent.

B: "It's pine."

Wintervale Whipped Soap - "Snow covered blue spruce boughs, frozen woods, crystalline sugared violets and sharp wintery air, all wrapped around a minty mug of hot cocoa."

I just love Wintervale in any way I can get it, and as a soap it's just as minty and fresh as the hair oil. I think if you like fresh clean scents for your soap, this is the perfect scent for it.

B: "Minty soap."

Here's the texture of the whipped soap, it's really thick and dense, but still light and airy. It doesn't fall, but instead sort of smooshes when you scoop some out. You can feel the air coming out of it when you use it. It's really moisturizing, and the scent lingers for longer than my other soaps. I use it with a bath poof, and it's really sudsy and lathers well.

Overall, I think this is a really great winter collection. There's a little something for everyone, and a lot of food scents for the season. I really like Wintervale in anything I can get it in, the Gingerbread and Marzipan Butter Bombs were divine, the Cocoa Mandarin and Peppermint Sugar Cookie lip balms were delicious, Hearth was a surprise favorite perfume, and the Sweet Potato Treat Pumpkin Butter was better than I expected. I highly recommend trying the Butter Bombs if you enjoy bath bombs, the whipped soap is some of the best I've tried, the lip balms are one of my favorites from any company, and the hair oil is so great on my hair. There were a few items I wish I hadn't bought, but for the most part I enjoyed almost everything.

Customer Service - I had kind of a big problem with this order. It was shipped fairly quickly, but when it arrived all of the perfumes I ordered weren't in the box. I emailed right away, and Matt said he would ship them out ASAP. Well, a week went by and nothing, no word about them, and they didn't surprise show up. So I emailed again and Matt said he would be happy to get them out the next day. To me, ASAP doesn't mean a week. I get that they are really busy, and trying really hard to get orders out as quickly as they can, but to tell me they would be sent and then aren't until I email again after a week? It's frustrating to say the least. And I was really looking forward to how quickly this was supposed to get to me, because I was going to get this review up immediately for you guys. I think it's awesome that they are having some recent success and have grown tremendously as a company, but it's good customer service that will keep customers coming back even when the wait time keeps increasing. When my missing items arrived, I was still missing one item, so I have just asked for a refund on it, since it was just an extra anyways.

Availability - These items and the rest of the Yule collection are being restocked today, November 20th at noon PST/3PM EST!

Overall Satisfaction - My absolute favorite was Wintervale, but I also loved Hearth as a perfume, I might get both scents in a full size perfume. I was a little disappointed about the customer service for my order this time, so I will probably sit out the restocks, unless there is something new.

What did you think of the Haus of Gloi Yule collection? Let me know in the comments!

For all other Haus of Gloi reviews, click here