Ladies and gents, hold on to your hats! This is an INCREDIBLE collection of exquisite products and I am simply not sure I can rave about them loud enough or long enough to get you to go – right now – and try them for yourselves.
Her Lavender and Spikenard Olive Oil Sugar Cane Scrub is luscious. She recommended using it post-shaving and I shuddered at the idea of putting anything gritty on my legs after they’d just been scraped raw. But she was right – my skin got incredibly soft and recovered a lot quicker than they usually do. The scent was interesting – not floral, not sweet, not . . . musky. It took a little getting used to, partly because my nose kept expecting the strong scent of lavender but wasn’t getting it. Oh, and on a hot day, putting this scrub in the refrigerator (it doesn’t get solid, just really dense) and putting it on hot skin feels divine.
The Jungle Sweat Perfume Solid was a hit. It’s a combination of carnation, lemongrass and basil. My sweetie says it makes me smell good enough to eat, and he really doesn’t like perfumes. Really, really doesn’t like them. (He says I smell weird when I smell like a rose.)
Relaxation oil. Uh oh . . . patchouli! I _hate_ patchouli. So much that I won’t waste space telling you how much I loathe it. Do I have to smell this? Try it? Put it on my wrist? Hmmm. This is kind of nice, sort of light and refreshing. (I waited for the sneeze and the typical back-of-my-throat-has-cat-hair-in-it feeling that I usually get when I smell patchouli.) Well, it’s been a month, I’m out of the oil, and I still haven’t had a bad reaction. If there weren’t so many others to try and that I really love, I’d buy this again.
Autumn oil is best described by her: “Hot sun burning down while you rake the leaves. That familiar smell of burning; it's virtually September background noise. A world of color surrounding you that makes you catch your breath; all that work is made magical. . . A blend of cinnamon, birch, black pepper, and wintergreen merge together for (on most people) a burnt-leaf drydown. Experience the best of fall, year round.” All I can say is: yes.
Bright Mother is a lovely scent that is predominantly chamomile, myrrh, and jasmine. For me, the jasmine predominated, but that was a pleasure not a problem as it has long been one of my favorites.
A completely different scent is Hecate (as is only appropriate). Her triple face is expressed in cypress, myrrh, and wormwood, which looks really odd on paper, but ends up being a nearly-indescribably swampy dark fertile (oh yes) scent that puts me into a very interesting mental place. Not for use in bubbly moods, I suspect, but it’s a power scent.
Creativity oil. Oh yum. Lavender and cinnamon combine to create a really special combination that is something like lavender turned into a tree and burned as an incense. Or something like that. (Have mercy on me, I’m running out of ways to say “this is one of the best blends I’ve ever tried.”)
She also has a line of fragrance for men, using wood-based oil like rosewood, sandalwood, pine, and cedar.
The goodies are all organic, all natural, and a lot of places that call themselves natural often just mean ‘not synthetic.’ They even, unless noted otherwise, vegan friendly. That, in a word, is amazing. For those of us who find ourselves ‘allergic’ (with reactions ranging from hives to wrinkled noses) to scents that means that these products simply will not have that effect (well . . . unless you just can’t help the wrinkled nose at the patchouli). This is because we’re allergic to the chemicals, not the scent themselves. Now, I’m more sensitive than most – regular old soap, even basically 100% fat glycerin, will dry my skin like a lizard – but Magickal Realism’s products caused no negative reactions at all. I’m sold.
Diana is serious about creating the items she offers; she doesn’t just purchase ready-made essential oils and create her own blends (which is fine for many of us) she creates as many tinctures and essences as she can from plants she’s grown or gathered herself. (In fact, her livejournal has pictures of the Stargazer lily she’s planning on working on next.)
If this all isn’t a glowing enough recommendation for you, how about this: If you're not sure what you're getting into, try out the samplers. For just a few dollars (many of them are only $2) you can try 1 ml of any of the listed liquid stock. That small an amount barely buys you a latte, how can you go wrong spending it on these beautiful, pure, amazing scents?
Finally: a word about the packaging. Diana puts everything in a lovely box, sized appropriately (of course). In my case, it was a round 4-inch high cylinder with fancy hats, shoes, sunglasses, and purses in stripes up the sides. I asked her if she always did that, or if that was just the ‘reviewer’s special’? Her reply? “Yes, my packaging is always that pretty - I consider that part of the service. Feeling good should start with what you see. :-)”
Go. Buy. Enjoy.
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Artist: Diana Rajchel
www.magickalrealism.etsy.com
