Fortune Cookie Soap Winter 2014 Soap Box "An Old Fashioned Family Christmas"

This Fortune Cookie Soap review is for the Winter 2014 box.  Fortune Cookie Soap makes all sorts of seasonal scents each year and the Soap Box is your chance to smell them before anyone else does. The Soap Box is released quarterly  but you can buy from their shop at any time of year.  It does ship internationally for an extra shipping charge.

The theme for this box is "Old Fashioned Family Christmas" and takes most of it's inspiration from the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  I've never seen this movie but if the scent names for some of these products are any indication, the movie suits Fortune Cookie Soaps sense of humor perfectly.

The Cost: $19.99/quarterly

What You Get: 8 exclusive, pre-release specially hand-crafted Fortune Cookie Soap Co. exclusive bath and body products in deluxe sample sizes along with a $10 gift card for using with any purchase at their website.

Christmas Bonus Deep Conditioner- This is a mystery fragrance and if you guess it, you'll get a $50 FCS gift certificate.  It smells awfully tasty but I have no idea what it is.  I'm pretty sure it's a hair conditioner?  The card doesn't say.  I just touched it and rubbed it on my hand and now I smell pine needles. Yay, Christmas!

"Sparky" Hydrate Me- Scrumptious vanilla pumpkin waffles with brown sugar, pecans and sheets of whip cream.  I guess they don't tell you what anything is so I had to look it up. "Designed to be used at the very end of your shower or bath, our Hydrate Me! conditioning body bar is fully loaded with luxurious oils, butters and addictive fragrances."

Whipped Cream Moisturizer in Jello Surprise- Festive plum with a zesty curl of citrus, all wrapped up with winter orchid and soft sandalwood.  I don't really like the smell of this one but I do like the FCS whipped cream body butters, though.

Shower Steamer in "I Pledge Allegiance, Amen!"- A brisk, outdoorsy scent of blue spruce and balsam fir, fresh mint and garden herbs.  Basically, it's a heavily scented fizzy designed for an aromatherapy type shower experience.  Set it just outside the shower stream and breath in deliciousness!

Whipped Soap in "Fried Pussycat"- Juicy plum and whipped caramel wrapped in artisan bourbon vanilla and jasmine blossoms.  This tub has barely a squidge of soap in it.  I'm not sure if it's mostly empty on purpose or what.  It's maybe a third full (and that's being generous).  I think this is a new item because I don't see it on their site.

Cuticle Butter in "Moose Mug"- Rich cream, egg and a touch of nutmeg.  This smells very sweet and does have a hint of eggnoggy scent.  I have way too much cuticle butter already so I will pass this along to someone who can enjoy it.

OCD Hand Sanitizer in Mele Kalikimaka- I love their OCD hand sanitizer!  It's actually hard to use it up before the next one arrives but I like the size; it fits in my purse perfectly.  Tropical spiced rum, tahitian vanilla, sprinkled with jasmine petals and twisted woods.  This smells SO SO good!! *love*

Fortune Cookie Soap in "Tis the Season to be Mary"- The signature soap of this company!  A hint of sweet almond with warm swirls of tobacco.  This also smells good!  And not like cigarettes or anything.

VERDICT: This box was full of scents I love!  I am kind of a sucker for holiday scents to begin with so I knew I wanted this box.  In reality, this box is not worth the $20 it costs.  Unless you really love FCS and getting a leg up on their new scents.  Personally I find the fortune cookie shaped soaps to be difficult to use since they tend to melt into a lump or break at the fold.  And for basically $3 a product, most of these aren't worth it.  It would also be nice if the info card explained what each product was and not just what the scent is.  This is the second box I've gotten where some of the products weren't even labeled. Oh, I did forget that you get a $10 gift card!  Whoops!  That does make it worth it if you use it.  And don't lose it.  Like I have the last two times.  I wish they sent the codes in an email or engraved them on your hand.  Or loaded them into your account.  And yes, I'm bitter that I lost those because I would have used them!  I really wanted the "No Place Like Home" personal space spray.

So I will be ending my subscription but it definitely was fun to try this box!  If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can get it on the Fortune Cookie Soap website!