Arcana Soaps

http://arcanasoaps.com/

http://www.indieknow.net/2013/12/company-overview-arcana-soaps.html

I've bought Arcana perfumes from Rhinestone Housewife and The Soap Box Co, as they don't have their own shop front. That's my beef with them - I wish they had an online store.

Rhinestone Housewife - http://www.therhinestonehousewife.com/
Fantastic customer service, very prompt with responding to questions and issues. Her store doesn't have Paypal but apparently this was an oversight and she intends to set that up when the site is updated in the near future. If you contact her and ask she will invoice you through Paypal directly. Otherwise if you're happy to pay with a credit card you're good to go. She has a couple of exclusive to RH Arcana perfumes - Genteel (aniseed, vanilla, amber, musk - LOVE IT) and Vulgar (cherry, chocolate, vanilla, bacon - didn't love it as much as I thought I would). All the limited editions are usually available on this site. The downside is that RH doesn't have samples of any Arcana perfumes (although I have received some as freebies in orders), and if you're international the shipping is killer. They use the same flat box system as BPAL so it starts at about $25US if you're overseas. It's bearable (just) if you're doing a big purchase, but not worth it if you only want a bottle or two.

The Soap Box Co - https://www.thesoapboxco.com/
Again, excellent customer service and prompt response to enquiries. Has Paypal as well as credit card payment options. They also have pretty much the full range of Arcana, including limited editions, and they sell samples of some (but not all) of the general catalogue. Shipping is cheaper than RH for internationals - my last order was 2 full bottles and several samples and it was $14US for shipping. That's pretty close to average for international shipping from the US these days (sob). Soap Box Co also has half a dozen or so exclusive to them Arcana perfumes and soaps, but I've not tried any of them.

So - Arcana itself. The limited editions stay around forever. I mean, almost literally forever. They seem to just eventually become permanent in most (all?) cases. I've only tried perfumes so I can't speak for any of the other products such as soap. The perfumes are gorgeous - quite potent and long-lasting. They have a good range of types from florals, musks, gourmands, unisex, and so on. My personal favourites are Estella ('Quietly stunning ambre blanc and vanilla bean with a kiss of cognac') and Devilish (smokey vanilla and sulphur) - one of the few perfumes I get comments on pretty much every time I wear it.

A couple of weeks ago Julia, the owner of Arcana, made an offer on Twitter to send her followers some samples of her newest LE collection (for Valentine's Day) if they paid the postage. As this offer was also open internationally I contacted her and yesterday received 6 free samples in the mail. I think that's pretty terrific treatment of customers. :-)

As a collector of indie perfumes for the past couple of years, I have to say that Arcana are still my favourite in terms of sillage. They seem to work the best with my skin chemistry so far. I only have 5 or 6 brands to compare with, but I find myself drawn back to my Arcana (of which I have about 50) if I want something to last and really be noticed. Maybe I just like my perfume stronger than others? Purchasing mainly from soapbox, I do find the postage costs to Australia a little inhibitive so my sister and I tend to order 8 or 10 bottles each at a time to make it more affordable.

Arcana is fantastic, I've fallen in love. Julia has been super sweet, and she includes a generous amount of samples with each order. The perfumes have amazing lasting power and sillage, and the range is expansive. It can be daunting for a newbie but Julia is very helpful with questions. She's also referred to her perfumes as "her art", which is something I love because I love her passion for her product. As far as other distributors, Rhinestone Housewife is my favorite. She's never been anything but super sweet and helpful and she ships crazy fast. They're both very great. Julia can sometimes take a few days to email back though, so be prepared to be patient if you're submitting a direct sales request.

Up front: I'm a huge Arcana fangirl. Julia's scents make up a huge portion of my perfume stash; I have or have tried nearly 200 scents at this point, and while of course they haven't all worked for me, I've had relatively very few misses.

I find the quality of Arcana's oils to be top-notch. There is some variance from scent to scent, of course, but in general the sillage and lasting power are impressive, and the blends are always interesting and well-done even if they're not to my personal taste. The scent catalogue is vast and could be intimidating to dive into, but it's entirely worth the effort in my opinion.

I mainly buy my bottles (and soaps and scrubs!) through The Rhinestone Housewife (fantastic service and lighting fast shipping), though I've purchased directly from Julia, from Arcana's Ebay store, and from Soapbox Co in the past. Samples aren't readily available, but decant circles are fairly easy to come by.

I've ordered Arcana several times now, from different retailers including Arcana's own ebay store, and have never been disappointed.

The perfumes are all high-quality, well-blended, and suit my skin chemistry well. I've never had an issue with shipping or communication from any of the retailers, and I do appreciate that there are several places from which to place an order -- it means that if one is sold out of a scent in an initial ordering rush, there might still be some in stock elsewhere.