Man, Sensuous Beauty keeps winning me over. Over and over again. With each product I try from them I'm just a little bit more raving than I previously was. I'm in goo-goo eyed honeymoon style romance with them right now, looking for excuses to shower so I can paint myself up with some oil or lotion from them when I get out of the shower. My latest obsession? Their Massage & Body Oil in Tropic of Love.

Tropic of Love is a purportedly tropical scent (makes sense, right?) that it seems should recall coconut and white chocolate/cocoa butter from what I can gather from reviews and the ingredient listing. These kinds of scents are some of my favorites in the extreme; I have been known to lean phototropically toward women on the bus that smell of freshly applied cocoa butter. To my surprise this oil smells quite the opposite of tropical.

I wasn't unpleasantly surprised, however. This massage oil has the homey, very domestic scent of lightly spicy vanilla extract when wafted straight from the bottle. When rubbed into the skin it has the warm, fattiness of butter and the light but pervasive sweetness of a marshmallow. Together these scents remind me very much of pound cake. By far, this is one of the most demure and noninvasive scents I have ever experienced in an oil, which is a medium of body product that we tend to think of as intense and concentrated. In spite of being made from entirely pure essential oils this is a very light, almost meek scent.

And yet? It's persistent. I applied some last night and today when I took a shower I found the steam rising from my body smelled faintly of vanilla. Mmmm. And just faintly. That's the beauty of this oil to me, that it can certainly be smelled while you're massaging with it or applying it to your skin, but it fades into the background after a little while. It doesn't disappear however, and when your lover kisses your neck or shoulder or thighs later in the day or the next morning they will get that hint of sweetness. I can be sensitive to strong smells and I really appreciate the balance this stuff finds between being overbearing and not present at all.

Sensuous Beauty's Tropic of Love Massage & Bath Oil contains the following ingredients: Organic sunflower oil, organic jojoba oil, organic olive oil, organic calendula infusion, Sensuous Beauty's Tropic of Love blend of premium amber and pure essential oils and vitamin E. As per usual, Sensuous Beauty keeps their essential oil cocktail a secret, but the oils they disclose as using for the base explain the gorgeous, heavy feel of this massage oil. The olive oil is what seems most present to me in spite of being the third ingredient listed and I would definitely liken its texture to olive oil. It is a bit more viscous and runny though, however, and when applied to the skin it has a tendency to move around so you have to keep your eye (and hands) on it so you don't stain any nearby fabrics. Yet like olive oil it has a kind of heaviness to it and it sinks easily into the skin with some rubbing.

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For extended massages I don't much care for this product for this reason. As after about 15 minutes or so of rubbing I find that it's quite absorbed and that all my rubbing is creating uncomfortable friction for my partner. Still, if you don't mind the scent, you can certainly reapply if you want to go longer and a little really does go a long way with this. A little pool about the size of a silver dollar will easily give you a great full body massage. However, my favorite use for this stuff is as an after shower or bath moisturizer.

If you are the kind of person that shies away from the feeling of oil or heaviness on your skin then you won't like this as a bath product. But if you're like me and prone to having dry skin? You will love this. It helps restore oil to your skin and protect it from the elements which, for those of us in climates that are starting to cool down, is invaluable now. This stuff leaves me seriously soft and smooth, not to mention yummy smelling. It can also be used as a bath oil, although I'd admit I haven't used it in this way. I'm not a big fan of the oil in water thing, but I imagine it would also perform quite well in this way.

Sensuous Beauty's Massage Oils are, like all of their products, synthetic and paraben free and only tested on people. It comes is a beautiful dark brown bottle that contains four fluid ounces of oil and is topped off with a black plastic screw cap. There is no stopper in the neck of the bottle so you should take care not to pour too much out at once; I find it's easiest to carefully drizzle some into the cap to help me measure. The label features the name of the company and product, a small lotus flower emblem and a repeating Indian-styled pattern. As a girl that peels the labels off of Intimate Organics products to avoid being asked questions about the naked torso, I feel fully confident leaving this out for guests to see. It's very discreet and since it lists both massage and bath oil as its intended uses you'll never have to field any snarky questions about it.

I now own one of these in the Lavender Ylang scent and phew, I really do not care for the smell of that. It doesn't remind me at all of either lavender or ylang ylang...it kind of smells mushroomy, like the scent of damp leaves in the fall or something. Not for me. But the Tropic of Love oil I have to restrain myself from using constantly for anything and everything - handjobs, anal sex, make-up removal, a dab behind my breasts for perfume, moisturizing, heck I've even put it in the bath (though I really don't care for oil in the bath) just to make it smell all dreamy. I could not adore it anymore; this scent is just too good and the oil itself is just what I like. Heavy, thick with nice absorption.

Seriously. If that sounds good to you then go and get some of this stuff!