In Which Josie Succumbs To Packaging and Yummy Smells

Okay, so I have a new place for everyone to check out immediately. It's called Fruits & Passion, and for those in the Central MA area, there is one in the newly-extra-fabulous Natick Mall. A while back, some soap and matching lotion appeared in my parents' kitchen, and it smelled so good. It also didn't dry out my hands after I used it, which is a huge thumbs up. The scent was sanguinelli orange (fancy talk for blood orange?) and fennel...thank goodness there are people out there doing things like putting together sanguinelli orange and fennel and naming OPI nail polishes, because I could never be that awesome. My heart was already won with the non-drying nature of the soap and the soft lotion, but on top of that, it comes in this fabulous little ceramic holder.
So great, right? You can imagine how psyched I was to receive the set in Lime Zest and Cypress from Santa in my stocking this year. But here's the cool part..."cucina" is "kitchen" in Italian, and that's exactly what these sets are designed for. Both the soap and lotion include all kinds of terrific natural stuff that promotes cell regeneration and healing of small cuts and burns, and have loads of super-moisturizey stuff as well to prevent drying from frequent hand washing. And I mention it smells AMAZING, right? You can snag yourself one of these little sets for $32 in Sanguinelli Orange & Fennel, Lime Zest & Cypress, Fig & Fresh Herbs like you see in this picture, and Zucchini Flower & Truffle.

But Santa did not stop with soap and lotion! No no, he also brought me some totally fantastic hand butter in olive. Let's just say for the record that these people really GET packaging. The cream inside is terrific...I have tried any number of body and hand butters, because my skin is basically in a perpetual state of falling off, and they always seem to be too goopy or not easily dissolved or worst of all, that grody oily, slimy kind. This one is nice and dense, but barely takes more rubbing than a regular hand lotion to work into your skin. The olive one I got is "fragrance-free" which means of course that they didn't TRY to make it smell like anything. It's got a very light scent like (duh) olive oil. You can get your hands on this cream in avocado, olive, cocoa, monoi, moringa, sesame or shea for $9 for a container that fits into your hand but lasts forever.