My friend Maizie calls herself a "handcrafter by profession". She also has the nose for fragrances. And she has combined her hands-on craftsmanship with her passion for fragrances to create home and body fragrance products to transform what was once a hobby into a brand under the label Scents & Sensibilities.
One afternoon, a small and intimate group of lady bloggers gathered at Angel's Kitchen (also partly owned by Maizie) for a Par-Tea. The afternoon transported us back to our childhood days of pretend tea parties, as our long table was bedecked with pink and white teacups and saucers with matching pink and white striped napkins and embroidered table runners.
Maizie regaled us with stories of how scents bring back memories. Isn't that so true? How many times have we remembered our Mom's home-cooked meals just because some aromas wafted through someone's kitchen? Or caught the whiff of perfume or men's cologne and the past blasts back into our present? Many sweet and wonderful memories are directly connected to scents and this is what Maizie said her products want to evoke.
With Maizie just before the event started
FOR THE HOME
Scents & Sensibilities fragrances for the home come, according to Maizie, from the highest grade of specially curated fragrances, essential oils and plant-based ingredients. She's honest enough to say that the ingredients are not all totally organic (I understand that because of short shelf life considerations) but to the extent possible, her ingredients are plant-based. Most of her variants are also not all single fragrances but combinations of at least two scents.
We had fun smelling the different fragrances. Ten of the fragrances are available all-year round; an extra scent (Yuletide Pine) is available during Christmas time.
Room and Linen Fragrances
I love home and linen fragrance sprays. Home fragrances are great for freshening up rooms, closets, curtains, or a specific place like the bathroom. Closets, for example, are some of the most stuffy places in a home so it is nice to pump some fragrances into them once in a while so some of the scent lingers in clothes and undergarments. My favorite thing just before plopping down on my bed to sleep is to spray my pillows and sheets with linen fragrance. Right now, my fave scent is lavender, because of its relaxation effect on me. For best results, Scents & Sensibilities recommends spraying about 6"-8" away from fabrics.
200ml - PhP 420; 1000ml Refill - PhP 1,600
Reed Diffusers
Reed diffusers are the all-around fragrance items that are great for small, enclosed areas. Just open a bottle, drop the reeds inside, and as the reeds soak up the liquid, the scent is dispersed throughout the room in a very short time. My reed diffuser from Scents & Sensibilities is permanently by my bedside. For some reason, reading a book at night with a scent wafting nearby, gives me that added pleasure and down time.
Scents & Sensibilities recommends reed diffusers in living rooms, bathrooms, foyers, kitchen counters. I'm adding bedside tables to that list.
150ml - PhP 650; 500ml Refill - PhP 1,850
Soy Candles
Now I know the difference between soy candles and the ordinary scented paraffin wax candles. The latter emit smoke which can be carcinogenic while soy candles burn without smoke, therefore cleaner. Scents & Sensibilities' soy candles are handpoured and come in the following scents: Almond Vanilla, Yuletide Pine, Citronella, Dewberry Pine, and Melon Milk.
Soy candles ( photo from S & S Facebook page)
The candles come in square and round containers. Here are their prices as of this post:
Square: 90ml - PhP 250; Set of 2, 90ml each - PhP 450
Round: 175ml - PhP 650; Set of 2, 175ml each - PhP 1,200
A fairly new item is their fragrance oils - a drop or two onto water on oil burners. These can also be used on revitalizers (as long as the revitalizer is cleaned daily or after every use). The fragrance oils can also be dropped on pot pourri, wood shavings, and dried flowers and placed all around the home. It comes in 30ml containers for PhP 350.
FOR THE BODY
Scents & Sensibilities has two fragrance products for the body at the moment: Eau de Toilette and Dry Oil Mist. They come in 3 scents: Olive Oil, Ginger Green Tea, and Morning Dew.
Eau de Toilette and Dry Oil Mist (from S&S Facebook page)
Eau de Toilette: 120ml, PhP 495
Dry Oil Mist: 120ml, PhP 695
Fragrance Layering Set (EDT + Dry Oil Mist): PhP 1,100
Maizie taught us the art of fragrance layering when using Scents & Sensibilities Eau de Toilette and Dry Oil Mist products:
*After bath, pat dry the body with towel. On still-damp skin, spray the DRY OIL MIST on your neck, arms, legs, and body. Spread and massage lightly until absorbed.
* Then, spray the EAU DE TOILETTE on your pulse points or the warmer parts of your body (best where the dry oil mist was applied on, to hold fragrance better), like the neck/nape, wrists, upper fold of the elbows, behind the ears and knees. Don't forget the décolletage (cleavage) and back, too! If so desired, wait a while and repeat the process.
* For that finishing touch: spray EAU DE TOILETTE at the top of your head and under your hairline, just above your nape. Brush hair to disperse the fragrance. *
* OPTIONAL: Spray a small amount of the EAU DE TOILETTE onto your clothes to trap in the fragrance. This is an additional way to make the fragrance linger longer.
One might ask, why Scents & Sensibilities when there are so many aromatherapy brands to choose from. True. But I'm
Look at my loot!!! I'm so excited to fill my rooms and pamper my body with fragrance!
Find Scents & Sensibilities here:
Outlet: 4/L Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/scentsandsensibilities.bodyhome
Instagram: @scents_and_sensibilities
Twitter: @SCENTSnSensblts
Email: info@scents-and-sensibilities.com
Mobile: +63 922 889 0089