Just got my order of Stirling Soaps' Weekend In Malibu delivered today. My Mom has been gone for 10 years now, but the scent would be something she'd be enthralled with.
When I was a kid in SoCal, Mom grew flowers in the borders surrounding the periphery of the back yard. Roses, Carnations, Snap Dragons and California Poppies grew in the sunny side of the garden. Along the west side of the house, mostly in the shade, she grew the "Special" flowers that took a little extra care (and I was tasked with watering them): Iris, Daffodils, Calla Lilies, Night-Blooming Jasmine, Holly and others. It was colorful, and in the hottest summer days, the water mist provided respite from the summer heat, cooling down that part of the yard.
Then we moved to Ohio when I was in High School. Roses grew, but nothing else could match those "Special" flowers.
I grew up, married & bought an old house near Dayton Ohio. Mom hated the place. It was 60 years old and needed a lot of yard work.
Under the condensation drain for a basement window air conditioner was a bed of low-growing plants. I was about to rake them up & tear them out, when my Parents decided to visit for the weekend. Those little plants bloomed - right around Easter. Mom about cried when I told I was gonna tear them out. They were Lily of the Valley & she had spent a lifetime trying to get some to grow. Her grandmother grew them during the Depression, and she had tried ever since, to grow her own. Eventually she got her own patch of them - and when done right, they grow like weeds, dense & thick, thriving thru the neglect of wintertime underneath heavy snow. When they bloomed, it is what I'd imagine Heaven smells like (adjacent to the Mesquite BBQ smoke).
Reading the scent ingredients for the Malibu Soap, I noticed it contains Lily of the Valley. The scent was unmistakable, and unique, but doesn't remind me of the Malibu I knew growing up.
So the soap: It's typical Sterling Soap, which means it lathers rich & dense. It has a residual slickness many other spendier soaps lack. The scent outlasts the shave, too.
Easter is upon us & this smells like Easter.
Mom would be pleased.
When I was a kid in SoCal, Mom grew flowers in the borders surrounding the periphery of the back yard. Roses, Carnations, Snap Dragons and California Poppies grew in the sunny side of the garden. Along the west side of the house, mostly in the shade, she grew the "Special" flowers that took a little extra care (and I was tasked with watering them): Iris, Daffodils, Calla Lilies, Night-Blooming Jasmine, Holly and others. It was colorful, and in the hottest summer days, the water mist provided respite from the summer heat, cooling down that part of the yard.
Then we moved to Ohio when I was in High School. Roses grew, but nothing else could match those "Special" flowers.
I grew up, married & bought an old house near Dayton Ohio. Mom hated the place. It was 60 years old and needed a lot of yard work.
Under the condensation drain for a basement window air conditioner was a bed of low-growing plants. I was about to rake them up & tear them out, when my Parents decided to visit for the weekend. Those little plants bloomed - right around Easter. Mom about cried when I told I was gonna tear them out. They were Lily of the Valley & she had spent a lifetime trying to get some to grow. Her grandmother grew them during the Depression, and she had tried ever since, to grow her own. Eventually she got her own patch of them - and when done right, they grow like weeds, dense & thick, thriving thru the neglect of wintertime underneath heavy snow. When they bloomed, it is what I'd imagine Heaven smells like (adjacent to the Mesquite BBQ smoke).
Reading the scent ingredients for the Malibu Soap, I noticed it contains Lily of the Valley. The scent was unmistakable, and unique, but doesn't remind me of the Malibu I knew growing up.
So the soap: It's typical Sterling Soap, which means it lathers rich & dense. It has a residual slickness many other spendier soaps lack. The scent outlasts the shave, too.
Easter is upon us & this smells like Easter.
Mom would be pleased.
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