Cake Beauty You Deserve This Set - Milk Made hand creme and Cake Walk foot creme review

Anyone who knows me will know how much this line has my name written all over it. A line of bath and body products that smell like CAKE. I've always been a huge fan of the foody/gourmand/edible scented genre of fragrance and bath products. If it says 'vanilla' on it, I'll more than likely buy it. Probably explains why I have vanilla toothpaste, vanilla-lavender furniture polish and vanilla scented garbage bags...

Despite a theme that suits my fragrance preferences perfectly, I still had never tried Cake Beauty. Partially because no one seemed to carry it. Recently Sephora started to stock the brand online, so this summer I ordered the "You Deserve This" set for my first taste of Cake (Beauty).

The set contains a Milk Made hand creme and a Cake Walk foot creme. Description and photo from Sephora.com:

"You Deserve This Set ($32 Value)
What it is:
A high-value duo designed to indulge the hands and feet.

What it does:

Nourish overworked and underpaid hands with this rich, vitamin-packed hand crème. The lightly scented formula is luxurious and silky, and absorbs quickly into the skin, leaving your hands feeling soothed and smooth, never greasy. For the feet, try this trusted recipe that works to ease tension and swelling with extracts of spearmint, peppermint, and pure menthol. Nourishing and hydrating oils and butters lock in moisture to instantly give feet (and legs) a lasting soft feeling.

This set contains:
- 3.4 oz Milk Made™ Velveteen Hand Crème
- 3.4 oz Cake Walk™ Triplemint Foot Crème

What it is formulated WITHOUT:
- Parabens
- Sulfates
- Petrochemicals
- Phthalates
- GMOs
- Triclosan

What else you need to know:
Milk Made is infused with scents of warm vanilla and a hint of fresh raspberry. Cake Walk features the scent of energizing spearmint with a pinch of peppermint."

The bottles are really attractive. They're white squeeze tubes with a flat flip-top cap which is nice because the tube can stand up and it's also neater than a screw-top cap. The color schemes are cute- pink and white and pink, white and green. The tubes are a generous size but not too big to easily carry in your purse or to keep in your desk.

I was most looking forward to the scent of Milk Made, and at first I loved it. When it first comes out of the tube is has this strong burnt-sugar creme brulee baked goods type of scent. There's not much of a raspberry smell straight from the tube. Sadly, the scent turned really bad on me. The "raspberry" scent came out when I started to rub in the lotion and the whole thing morphed into this sharp, artificial burned sugar chemical type of scent. The kind of scent that makes the bridge of my nose hurt and gives me a headache. The scent is long-lasting, which would be awesome if I liked the scent. It really lingers with you all day.

The Cake Walk foot creme turned out to be my favorite. The scent can easily be described as "mouthwash." I don't normally like mint scents- they end up smelling like gum or toothpaste and that grosses me out. This one, while it does smell like an oral hygiene product, is quite pleasant once it dries down a bit. It's not super strong, it's more of a soft, sweet peppermint and spearmint scent. It is definitely pleasant and even a bit relaxing. It says it contains menthol for a cooling effect, but the cooling effect on me is very minimal. It may be worth mentioning that I seem to be immune to almost every type of cooling/menthol product- I can't even feel Icy Hot- so it may be stronger on someone else. Though, Bath and Body Works Twisted Peppermint lotion still makes me freezing cold and tingly for almost an hour after I apply it. Maybe it's the type of oil or amount of menthol used? Straight mint oil versus oil plus menthol? Who knows.

The formula on both of these was excellent. The hand creme is light and quickly absorbed- not greasy at all. It's not super moisturizing like a heavier hand cream (Neuotrogena or L'Occitane come to mind) but it is still quite moisturizing. The foot creme is even better. It's so light and fresh and leaves such a wonderful feeling on my feet (and hands!) and it leaves my skin smooth for quite a long time. Another thing I really liked about the Cake Walk foot creme is that it also isn't greasy- it's not one of those foot cremes you apply and then try to stand up and end up sliding across the room on greasy feet... It absorbs/dries quickly and doesn't leave a layer of greasiness. It's best applied after a shower, but I like to apply it before bed.

So... my first experience with Cake Beauty. How do I feel? I wish I had liked the Milk Made scent more because I really like the formula of the lotion and the style of the tube. I would definitely buy another hand or foot creme from them if it came in a different scent. I'd really like to try more of their products and scents- the lemon vanilla one has me especially curious because that's one of my favorite combinations (still mourning the loss of Bath and Body Works Hello Sugar). I ordered the Holiday Hand Creme trio that contains It's A Slice, Vanilla Snow and Desserted Island. I was going to get it during Friends and Family but the set mysteriously disappeared completely from the site and didn't reappear until yesterday morning. I was baffled when it was removed from my shopping list and I searched high and low for it. Very mysterious...

On a related note, I've just learned that Cake Beauty is doing a Black Friday special! Starting Friday, if you place an order of $40 or more on their website they'll automatically include a mini Satin Sugar Hair and Body Refreshing Powder. I was looking at that last night, I'm very curious about it... it's a dry shampoo scented with lemon vanilla but it comes in a darker shade that might not be so obvious and white on my dark hair. I kinda want to try it...