New Vendor Spotlight : Pocket Full of Peonies

I often vow to try new vendors regularly but to be perfectly honest, it's difficult to get excited about the unknown when there's a long list of tried and true vendors that I love to order from again and again. 

I'm always a little shocked when a new vendor not only impresses me but blows me away. 

Pocket Full of Peonies (PFoP) is one such vendor that exceeded my expectations. I would venture so far to say that I was even a bit blown away.

First, though. Full disclosure. 

Jennifer, the owner of PFoP, has been a reader and commenter here on the blog so when she contacted me, I recognized her immediately. She asked if I would be interested in testing her wax because she was seriously considering selling them to the public and wanted to make sure that the results she was getting at home would be similar in an unbiased test environment. 

Not that I'm getting bombarded with offers to test wax, but I have gotten a handful of requests and I've turned them down simply because I wasn't prepared to deliver bad news if the wax sucked. I knew that I had to be 100% honest and thorough. The chances of a bad review for a brand new vendor were much higher than the wax actually being decent, let alone great. 

I'm not sure exactly why I said yes when I received Jen's email late last spring. Maybe in the back of my mind I was beginning to see the need to take the blog in a different direction. If I had to tell her the wax was awful, at least I wouldn't be around as much to suffer the potential awkwardness. 

I did say yes and I'm glad I did.

Pocket Full of Peonies ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DID NOT SUCK. As a matter of fact, what I melted from the large selection she originally sent, exceeded my admittedly low expectations in a staggering way.

I received the test melts at no charge but the order I'm about to talk about was paid for by me at published rates at the time of order.

POCKET FULL of PEONIES 

Owner : Jennifer Colony

Website : Pocket Full of Peonies

Facebook Page : PFoP FB Group

I placed a custom order through Facebook on August 7th and received the order on August 19th - a twelve day TAT (including weekends). 

I ordered a combination of scent shots and custom blended chunks. Because my results from testing were excellent for scent shots and various other shapes, I was not worried about trying out the chunks, even though they weren't part of the test order shapes. 

The chunks have a unique, waxy outer coating on the sides that I noticed immediately. Initially, I thought there was tight, clear plastic encasing each chunk. 

These chunks are huge! 

My Chunk Order

apple crumb / cider donut / wedding cake - I smell quite a bit of cinnamon with the wedding cake note following. I'm not detecting much crumb from the apple crumb, perhaps I should have made that the overpour scent.

fresh mint / watermelon - delightful! There is a nice and subtle tart note that confused me at first but the more I sniff, the more I like.

peppermint / watermelon / marshmallow - not only do I love the pastel colors of this blend but the blend itself is amazing. I'm so glad I added the marshmallow, it puts it on another level. 

fresh mint / raw sugar / mandarin - very juicy and sweet smelling. The mandarin is just a tad too overpowering, next time I'll make the mint more dominant. Still so good, though.

strawberry jam / cotton candy cookies - not-so-great blending on my part. Strawberry jam and cotton candy are not compatible. The slight hints of bakery in the cookies is completely lost in syrupy sweetness. I like PFoP's strawberry jam though.

pumpkin pecan waffles / blueberry / marshmallow - SO good. This is a delicious, delicious blend. I may swap the blueberry as the overpour next time but it's near perfection as it is. One of my favorites from my order.

lemonade / sweet tea - probably might be a hard sell for many. I personally love it but sweet tea definitely has a peculiar beat to it. The lemonade is so tart, the inside of my cheeks started watering. Another one that I just fall in love with the more I smell it. 

pink sugar / sweet melon - Another excellent blend. I thought, maybe, this would be safe and boring but it's another favorite. Delicately sweet and pretty.

sugar cookie royale / lemon cupcakes - Sugar cookie royale was one of the scents that I tested and it was super strong. It's just strong enough here to hold it's own with the lemon. Barely, the lemon is off the charts in this blend. 

serendipity / sugar waffle cone - not my favorite. I'm feeling a little blender's remorse for this one. These two scents don't play nicely with each other. 

serendipity / citrus / coconut cream pie - I did much better with serendipity pairing it with citrus, coconut and bakery. I'm loving the citrus so much, I'm finding myself smelling around the chunk to get more whiffs of it.

twisted peppermint / lemonade / buttercream - I'll be honest, I was inspired by another vendor's blend when I thought to combine these scents. It's first and foremost a bakery, reminding me of holiday baked goods that feature peppermint. 

I ordered quite a few scent shots. Knowing how well they perform nullified any thought of scaling back.

dreamsicle - I'm picky about oranges but I like this one. I love the creaminess that wraps around the orange note.

french lime blossom (Jo Malone type) - a beautiful floral. I'm not picking up the lime but it's still superb.

cotton candy cookies - cotton candy oil varies greatly --from being subdued to sticky sweet. This is on the sweet side but I love it with the bakery component. I really do smell the cookies!

let them eat cake - my new favorite dupe and current wax obsession. I'm actually so in love with let them eat cake that I'm going to purchase the perfume from Tokyo Milk. It's labeled an oriental vanilla and it bridges musk with gourmand brilliantly. 

pink sangria - smells like a combination of sour candy and pink sugar, thumbs up!

it's bedtime kids - completely reminds me of the scent of an infant's head after a bath. I'm not familiar with the popular baby soaps and shampoos by name, but this scent is unmistakable. 

Trix (type) - I get pink bubblegum when I smell this. I was expecting something similar to fruit loops but Trix lacks the cereal note.  

beach (Bobbi Brown type) - I own Beach by Bobbi Brown in perfume and I can say that this is an excellent dupe. It's a fresh and clean beachy scent.

blueberry fruit loops - a strong scent of blueberry and lemon. I tested this one and loved it, I knew I wanted more.

I love this shape in Fairy's Petticoat.

While my order was processing, a sampler was offered through the PFoP's facebook page. I immediately grabbed one and it was delivered with my custom order.

blueberry muffin wildberry noel - I'm not a fan of wildberry because I think it smells sour, which is what I'm finding to be the case in this blend. I love the blueberry muffin and noel notes that I smell.

perfect pumpkin sugar cookie royale - this one is so very good, it has the perfect amount of spice in it --which, for me, is not a lot. Another blend where I love the sugar cookie royale.

blueberry pumpkin crunch cake - I pick up a healthy dose of cinnamon and it dominates this chunk. If I were more of a cinnamon fan I wouldn't mind it at all.

brown sugar glazed donut - To me, this is almost an exact dupe of warm vanilla sugar. Even though I get more musky than bakery, I still like it very much.

apple crumb toasted marshmallow - Love it! Non spicy, awesome bakery scent with just enough apple mixed with the smoothness of the marshmallow. I pick up the crumb too and it's perfect.

fall harvest cider lane - reminds me of potpourri - the dried petal variety. There's a definite dryness to it with subdued spiciness. 

cider donut sugared shortbread - one of my favorites in this sampler. It's a very interesting vanilla with definite touches of cider donut. 

I love my order. I think it's rather uncommon for a new vendor to debut such great quality wax. Of course there are vendors who have pretty much nailed it out of the gate, but the handful that come to mind are diamonds in the rough compared to all the unknown vendors who give scented wax a go. 

It's most definitely time for a giveaway. I am so excited about PFoP that I will be sponsoring a giveaway so that you can try them too! 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS 

1.  Giveaway ends on Friday 10/04/15

2. Join Pocket Full of Peonies Facebook group here:

Pocket Full of Peonies Facebook Group Page

3. Leave me a comment or send me a message letting me know you're a member of the PFoP FB group

4. (optional) Comment on the group page and say hi!

***CONGRATS TO AMANDA C for winning the giveaway***

I know this may sound like an advertisement but I am in no way partnered with this vendor. I genuinely want to see them do well and love to spread the word when new vendors are worth a try!

I can't speak specifically of the wax chunks other than what I think of them pre-melted but I can say that the scent shots and other shapes that I have melted have been very strongly scented. 

Thank you for entering the giveaway!