WALK 'N' SNIFF: Happy Home (and other leftover spring scents)

Since the weather was surprisingly sunny and warm (-ish), I thought I'd take advantage of this nice break and make a trip after work to my fav store in the city to get my sniff on. I feel like I'm the only person on the planet that hasn't gotten to sniff the muthaeffers and my curiousity was killin' me!

So first let's rap a taste about the miscellaneous ones

Papaya Sunrise - This was supposed to be an "unicorn candle" exclusive to White Barn but it looks like it slowly started to trickle into all stores. Honestly I wasn't all that excited about this one despite the "newness" factor and was even less excited once I sniffed it. It smells a bit like Mango Coconut Cooler from Summer Sips with a hint of Pineapple Lychee Smoothie. I'm not entirely sure but I think this is a repackage of Sunset Beach from last summer's Coastal Cool ; they basically have same notes - papaya, pineapple and sugarcane. Anyhoo, this is just another standard cliché (boring) BBW-ian "tropical" scent - intensely sweet tropical fruit (papaya/guava/mango) with a hint of pineapple and coconut.

Fresh Water and Sea Salt - As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to have it; y'all already know that I love me some fresh clean watery scents. Then I saw the notes and I knew exactly what it was a repackage of...and sniffing just further confirmed it. It's Sea to Santorini from last spring/summer's Destination collection. It's a crisp fresh watery scent (cucumber/melon) with a sweet powdery orange flower note and intense and pungent neroli. It's basically an updated and more sophisticated, high end, slightly feminine version of Oceanside

Love & Sunshine - I'm not usually a big fan of candles based on body care but I actually liked this one. It's a lemony scent for sure but not nearly as potent and in your face as Kitchen Lemon or Limoncello or Lemon Drops; very toned down and sweet. There's a tiny bit of sweet muddled strawberries and just the tiniest hint of floral action. Now Tinadivaicious said in his latest haul vid that this might be a tweaked repackage with a twist of Paris Amour..I think he might be right, I'm not 100% sure so don't quote me on that. At any rate, it's cute, it has "mass appeal"; it's bright and sweet, it's summery - again, mass appeal.

My store didn't have Apple Flower although too many people say that it smells like Pink Apple Punch and Wasabi Apple, so yeah....


Now let's get to the good stuff, the Happy Home collection. This whole collection is a bunch of repackages, not a new scent in the entire bunch. On Facebook, e'rybody and their grandmas guessin and theorizing what they thought these were repackages of. That said, I had to sniff these suckers for myself so I could throw my 2 cents in...


Relax ~ Lavender Linens - There's really not much to say about this one - it is without a doubt French Lavender from Provence Garden. I don't mind this repackage cuz this was an incredible scent and the best and most spot on lavender scent that BBW ever produced. For those of yall who never smelled FL, it's just a straightup lavender scent. Rosemary...maybe; maybe that's what adds to the lavender's crispness and astringency. Tonka (vanilla in FL)...not so much

Happy ~ Sunshine & Green Daisies - This one is a repackage of a scent from the Slatkin era that a lot of y'all might not remember or have even gotten to sniff. It's Green Daisy from '11(or '10?), later renamed the year after as Green Grass which has not seen the light of day since Spring '13. It's a very "green" scent - think freshly cut grass. There's a little bit of sweet powdery jasmine action with just tiniest hint of lemon zest. I can't be mad with this repackage cuz at least it's a Slatkin era that's been brought back into rotation after such a long time. And it works - this is a very bright...happy scent.

Fresh - Spring Blue Skies - Unlike Green Grass, I'm not too thrilled about what this is a repackage of - not a big fan of the original. It's Paris Nightmare...I mean Daydream. Ok I exaggerate, PD isn't that bad but it isn't good either. Scent-wise, it's kinda hard to describe. It is a little on the..."cologney" side..but it's not your usual woodsy/herbal/musky type of cologne scent. There's some floral action - think powdery fresh dewy floral notes like lily/muguet, jasmine, freesia. However there's the addition of both sandalwood and moss that deepens and masculinizes the blend and keeps it from smelling like a bouquet of perfumey flowers. In the past, the "citrus" note was "mandarin" or "bergamot"...I mean I guess? There's the absolutely tiniest hint of some kind of "orange" peel in the background. Blue waters... or "rain" in PD...or "emerald waters" back it originally came out as Flirt"...I've no effin clue!

Smile ~ Pink Lemonade Punch - Everyone, myself included, theorized that this was a repackage of Pomegranate Lemonade...an obvious choice. But after smelling it, I don't think it is; it's not nearly as tart and zesty. Honestly I'm farfetched to say this even smells like lemonade. First of all it's quite heavy on the "berry"..raspberry/blueberry, not so much pomegranate. It's also surprisingly and uncharacteristically creamy and vanilla-ish; this scent kinda reminds me more of ice cream/yogurt than lemonade. I don't think this scent is new, it smells like something - a soap perhaps or body lotion. I don't think this repackage of whatever works; the original (untweaked) Pomegranate Lemonade or it's little sister Pink Sangria would've been better choices.

Sunshine ~ Bright Verbena Blossom - Yep, you guessed it...Lemon Verbena from Provence Garden. No not Limoncello, not Lemon Drops...Lemon Verbena. It's a cleaner lemon smell with a hint sweet powdery floral ie lily. There's nothing remotely candyish about this scent whatsoever. Now this incarnation of LV listed lavender in the notes which kinda threw me for a loop; I thought it would be my jam Fleur de Provence but nope, it's just LV. It works, it's a nice bright cheerful clean scent, a good scent for spring cleaning

Love - Hearts and Flower - As soon as I saw the notes for this bad boy, I knew exactly what it was and sniffing it just confirmed my hunch.... it's Tokyo Petals/Electric Tokyo from last year's Destination collection. You get a dewy "pink" floral note (and no not muthaeffin cherry blossoms) with sugary berry note. So I'm just gonna come right and say it...this was a stupid ass choice! This is one of those random scents that BBW loves to push on people; it's right up there with Mahogany Teakwood, Paris Daydream/Sparkling Icicles and Frosted Cupcake. First it's supposed to be a Japanesey scent then it was a Mother's Day scent and now it's all hearts and love and on sale just in time for Valentine's Day...really BBW? Utter bullshit! Why not Garden Party or Flower Shop? Friggin PINK PETAL TEA CAKE!!!! Strawberries, rose petals and whipped cream...if that's not a Valentine's lovey-dovey scent, I don't what is! Definitely not Tokyo Petals!

Home ~ Sweet Caramel Comfort - Now this one is an oddball for sure and has caused much contention in the BBW. Some people thought it was Summer/American Boardwalk....ugh. Judging by the notes, I thought for sure it was Brandied Pear which made its debut and farewell back in the fall '12. I was wrong. By all reports, folks were sayin that it was in fact another Slatkin era fall scent that hasn't seen the light of day in years...Caramel Apple. All hell broke lose!

"How could this be Caramel Apple? It says "pear" in the notes"

"It can't be Caramel Apple, I don't smell any fruit, just caramel!"

And so and so forth. However after sniffing, it is without a shadow of a doubt CARAMEL APPLE! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, I will go down swingin to defend myself, I know what I smelled and I smelled Caramel muthaeffin Apple!

First of all, just to squash this Apple vs Pear nonsense. In BBW's mind, apple and pear are basically the same and are used interchangeably..the same with sage vs moss, sandalwood vs cedarwood, bergamot/mandarin/clementine/neroli, etc. I wrote a whooooole post about this bs. Furthermore, both apple and pear are mentioned in the notes for Caramel Apple..."golden apple, brown sugar and cream caramel are blended with...ANJOU PEAR, nutmeg and vanilla cream. BAM!!!

So umm, yeah, Caramel Apple...the brown sugar and spice notes are toned down and the caramel note amped up but it's still essentially the same scent. And the apple/pear is very apparent and was the first note to hit my nose; to those who don't/can't smell it, I suggest usin a squirt of Flonase or a Neti pot, clean out those nostrils and give this scent a second huff . Anyhoo, while it is a very cozy comforting scent, there's no denying that it's a very strange choice for spring; it's very much a fall scent. I'm just glad it's not Summer Boardwalk!

Comments

  1. Come back to youtube...we miss you! I haven't been excited about BBW's crap in a while. Having you mention that Sweet Caramel Comfort is Caramel Apple, has definitely piqued my interest!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awwww, you're sweet! No worries, I plan to upload more vids in the near future.

      Yes it's definitely Caramel Apple without a shadow of doubt and doubt let amyone convince you otherwise

      Delete

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