BLASTS FROM THE PAST: Bloom and Garden Party



I'm not the biggest fan of floral scents - to me they're either too overwhelmingly powdery or too "old lady" perfumey. And, like with pine-y scents, I prefer floral scents to be blended with other notes, preferably fruity - lemon/lime, apple/pear etc...although, like with pine, I've been slowly coming around. Now for springtime, my usual go-to floral scent is Spring however last year's version, for me anyway, was a hot mess so I wanted to branch out and try new floral scents. That said around the same time there were two floral scents in World Garden/Garden Party collection that I wanted to try - Garden Party and Bloom. I already had other scents to use up the time so I decided to hold off and burn em next year. Fast forward to this spring where it was still cold as hell and I need some good spring scents to cure the winter blues. Moreover neither scent came back this spring, which is a shame, and there were/are no good floral scents besides the same boring crap ie Lilac Blossom and Honeysuckle. and so without further ado....

Products: candle and wf bulb
Area used in:  living room (candle) wf bulb (main bathroom)
Time Period: end of February- beginning of April

Description: Enjoy the newest spring blooms with this fresh floral blend of peonies, lily of the valley and a hint of dewy pear

missing note: water lotus, apple blossoms, plumeria

So this was a relaunch/rename/relabel of an old Slatkin classic called First Bloom - it first came out in spring '12, and was randomly put in Fresh Picked the year after. I pretty much ignored both years because of the smell (which I'll get to in a moment) but when it came out as "Bloom" last year, for some reason it intrigued me. Maybe it was the green wax made it seem more fresh and spring-y as opposed to white and then light carnation pink that it was in the past...I dunno. I finally tried it this spring and fell in love!

So performance-wise, it was kinda iffy. The wicks were kinda on the wimpy side; sometimes the wax melted evenly, sometimes it melted super slowly, and once in awhile it would flat out canyon leaving cliffs of wax on the sides. The throw was fan-friggin-tastic, utterly divine; it completely filled my living room. Occasionally I'd burn it in my bathroom while I was in the shower or cleaning and it did something that hasn't happened to me in awhile - it choked me the heck out! And as I prefer fresh/watery scents for my bathroom, I had the wf bulb in the there and that sucker is STRONG, just how I like it!

Now in the past, I wrote off First Bloom as smelling like bar soap, more to the point to me it smelled exactly like the old pink Dove's bar soap from the 80's/90s that my mom used to use...especially the year before last when it the exact same rose pink wax color. It could be my nose or the green wax color playing tricks on me, but I feel like this incarnation smells more fresh and less Dove soapy. The best word I think to describe this scent is dewy; there are a lot of very fresh crisp dewy notes. Peony and water lotus...dewy...pear and apple blossoms...dewy. Lily of the valley...maybe. Can't say that I get plumeria. I mainly smell pink/rosy again dewy peony and water lotus with a bright sweet apple blossom note and juicy crisp pear fresh of the tree...I'm all about anything with pear thrown in. The scent makes me think of clear pond filled floating water lotus and lily pads. It also makes me think of rain; I like to burn this during a bout of afternoon/evening rain.

Bloom is really really lovely; it such a shame that it didn't come back this year. It's a great spring afternoon/early evening scent and it's perfect for rainy spring days - it's a total April showers scent. And in wf bulb form, it's a great scent for the bathroom. I don't say this very often but I highly recommend finding and bidding for this scent on Evil-bay.

Products: candle and wf bulbs
Area used in:  living room
Time Period: end of February- beginning of April

Description: You're cordially invited to enjoy a blend of pink garden roses and pear blossoms wrapped in soft musk


So initially I was a leery of this scent; first I was afraid, I was petrified. I am totally anti-rose; rose is my least favorite floral scent ever and like the dreaded pumpkin, I tend to avoid it. However at the time I decided to sniff it with an open mind and much to my surprise, I found myself really loving it!

Performance-wise...well at least flame-wise and throw-wise was the BOMB-DIGGITY! The wicks always had mushroom tops and the wax pool was always consistently deep and even. Here's the problem - like all white colored wax it had the dreaded "crud-color" problem where the soot seeps into the wax it turns it cruddy looking. Case in point...

 not cute!

However, I overlooked this issue because everything was/is A+! The throw was/is excellent, divine! It knocked and choked the hell out and I loved it every minute of it. I also had the wf bulbs in my living room as well and those little bastards pack a punch. I could smell them in the hallway coming up to my apartment door!

And now the scent, OMG the scent...it just smells like springtime..PERIOD!

Back in the day, a few people wrote this off as a repackage of Slatkin's classic scent Flower Shop which was and is considered the ULTIMATE floral scent. It's easy to come to that conclusion as both candles smell very similar. However I'm here to say that Garden Party is NOT a repackage of Flower Shop. Flower Shop was a bit more powdery and the cooling greens gave a very earthy "green" vibe to it - it really smelled like you stepped into a...FLOWERSHOP with freshly cut flowers. Garden Party is a bit more fresh and dewy..much like the aforementioned Bloom. You get very pink tender dewy rose notes with a fresh bright pear blossom note. Musk...I mean I guess? There's something in there, unlike the green notes in Flower Shop, that calms the blend down and keeps it from smelling like ol lady perfume. You really do get the sense of being outside surrounded by pink rose bushes. The scent, despite the notes, are not at all overpowering and is very inviting.

Scent-wise, I do have one small teeny tiny issue. Towards the ends, the scent does start to smell a little burned..which happens to many candles but it's kinda noticeable with this one. Up until the end, the scent is divine! I still love it. I daresay this has knocked over Spring as my favorite springtime floral scent. I really do hope this and Flower Shop as well as Bloom comes back in the ear future cuz they are all such incredible scents. If you see this on Evilbay, GET IT!