RANT OF THE DAY: Merry Winter Solstice!!!

 

makingmoves.net

 

Well today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the first official day of winter. And next week is the best day of the whole year, Christmas!!!

 





www.hdpaperwall.com 

 

I'll be real with you guys. Honestly, winter is my least favorite time of the year because of the weather. Me and cold just don't go together. And believe it or not, New Orleans can get pretty cold during this season. Because of the humidity and moist river air, the wind can get a little chilly; temps are usually in the 60s and 50s but it can get as low as in the 40s and 30s. And on a very few rare occasions, it'll even snow a little bit; that's only happened 3 times in the course of my life. However this season does have things to look forward - Christmas (of course), New Years and then finally Carnival/Mardi Gras (February/March)

 

Winter also has some of my favorite scents, second only to fall scents. During this season, especially around Christmas time, I like warm cinnamon-ey scents, cool minty notes and anything winter woods-y/pine-y.

 

With that said, much like in my autumn equinox post back in September, I thought today I'd share my favorite winter scents.

 

These are a few of my favorite scents!!! 

 

Here are 4 top all time favorites

• Tis the Season is absolutely perfection! I say tis all the time and I'm stickin to my claim, this candle is Christmastime in a jar!!! Every time I sniff it, I think about my childhood and taking down the decorations from the attic and putting up the Christmas tree. It's a such a simple a scent with basic notes (apples, spiced cider and pine) yet it's so enticing and inviting and evokes such warm memories.
• Winter is another great winter/Christmastime scent. It's such a complex blend and the scent is hard to describe yet, like with Tis the Season, it's such a welcoming scent and conjures warm memories. http://realtalkaboutbbwcandles.blogspot.com/2013/07/random-post-christmas-in-july.html
• Snowed In is a fairly new scent to join the pantheon of winter scents; it first appeared last year. It tested this year but unfortunately didn't go wide. What makes Snowed In so interesting is that it's wintery without using pine, mint or spice notes. The best word I could think of to describe this scent "alpine" - fresh, clean, outdoorsy snowy scent. If snow had a scent, this what I'd expect to smell like. It's like Sweater Weather (the both share juniper and sage notes) in the sense that you get the sense of having a brisk walk in crisp chilly weather. http://realtalkaboutbbwcandles.blogspot.com/2013/12/bbw-blast-from-past-snowed-in-winter.html
• Finally there's Fireside! Like Tis the Season and Winter, Fireside has been a BBW winter staple for years and has continue to stand the test of time. It's just perfection! It has something for everyone - it's warm and inviting, woodsy, smoky, masculine, sensual. And it's perfect for people (like myself) who don't have a fireplace.

The next three that I have recently tried and made the cut

•  Chesnut&Clove is divine! It's so unappreciated and overshadowed and I don't know why cuz it's such an amazing scent. It reminds me a lot of Winter in the sense that it's such a complex Slatkin-esque scent with notes you wouldn't think go together but they do beautifully and evokes an image as well as conjures a warm cozy feeling. 
• Sparkling Icicles, much like Chestnut&Clove, I didn't find out about last year until the very last minute last year but I decided that I would try them this year. Yes, there is no getting around the fact that it is very "cologne-y"; in fact it's smells like Giorgio Armani's Acqua di Gio. It's a very fresh masculine scent and just different from your typical wintery scents.
• Snow Day is one of the few new scents that come up this winter that was actually any good. BBW put yourself on the back! Snow Day is such a great scent and much like Sweater Weather and Snowed In, you have this sense of being outdoors when you sniff it. And has something very everyone's tastes - it's sweet for sweetey lovers, outdoorsy and slightly piney for the woodsy/outdoorsy lovers and minty and piney for the winter scent lovers. I do hope this scent sticks around! 

These two scents I like however I don't really consider them to be very wintery

 

• In the past I tended to overlook and ignore Cranberry Pear Bellini; the pink rose color turned me off and the notes just didn't appeal to me. However something made me want to buy to try this year. It's a fun scents - fresh, fruity, zesty and effervescent. I can see how this could be a favorite of some people.
• It's about time that BBW attempted a champagne scent. Like CPB, Champagne Toast is fresh, fruity, zesty and effervescent 10 times. It's great scent...just not particularly very wintery 

 

These final two are honorable mentions. Fan favorites but not particularly favorites of mine. Not that I don't like these two, however I can't see myself ever burning them.

 

 

• Evergreen is just your standard pine scent....nothing too extraordinary. It's smells lie a Christmas tree ready to be decorated.
• Fresh Balsam...whoo, this ish is potent. I have an old wf bulb of this near my Christmas tree this year. Unlike Evergreen, this smells more like a Christmas tree still in the dirt that you're about to chop. It's very earthy and dirty smelling...in a good way of course. And the mix of fir and eucalyptus a powerful knock out combo.