I am a contest junky. There, I said it, I admit it. I love them. I have won a few in the last 6 months or so but my most recent win was a $15.00 gift certificate to Joyful Girl Natural Products. I was pretty excited to spend it. Shelly Henley of Joyful Girl Natural Products emailed me and gave me instructions and told me to feel free to contact her with any questions. So, of course I had questions. Mostly about scent options, because she has some very intriguing scents available.

I ended up picking patchouli scented shaving cream, ginger lime lip balm and the kid friendly natural insect repellent. I figured this was a great summertime basket for the boys and I. I could keep my legs smooth, heal up sun and wind exposed lips and try to keep those pesky gnats off of us while we are playing in the summer sun. Well, boy was I surprised when I received not only the products I requested but a few more to sample. Shelley and I had talked about her sweet anise perfume, which sounded wonderful, so she decided to include a sweet anise (called Happy) perfume compact and a patchouli compact for me to try out. Then she even sent me a container of foaming body wash and an antiseptic balm stick.

First let me tell you to RUN!!! do not walk, to Joyful Girl Natural Products and get some Happy/Sweet Anise products, whether it is a perfume or one of her other options (my favorite is the shave cream! You can’t believe how close a shave you will get with this cream.) I am totally smitten with the sweet anise scent. I want it around all the time. Maybe we could talk Shelley into making a soy candle out of it! Oh, I would be in heaven. The scent reminds me of summer at the beach for some reason. Yes, anise is the same basic scent as black licorice but DO NOT let that scare you. This is mixed with tangerine and honeysuckle to make the most fantastic scent you can imagine. Think sweet basil softened, and close to your skin. Oh, it is exotic and light, and dreamy. Can you tell I like this scent?

I also love the shaving cream. I have not had such a good shave, ever. I use another, bigger named Organic product that is good, but this is much better. I think Joyful Girl Natural Products has a winner with this one. I also used the insect repellent the other day on both myself and the boys. I liked it because it was in a stick form and didn’t have that terrible citronella scent often used in natural insect repellents. It seemed to work nicely, but I have only tried it once and not out in the middle of the yard where all the gnats hang out. I’ll report back after I test it out there.

If you get a chance take a look at some of Joyful Girl Natural Products and maybe even try out one of her products (sweet anise – hint, hint). And just so you know they also have a line of natural and organic products for cats and dogs called Joyful Animals.

Loving the Joyful Girl line.