Real Talk About Bath and Body Works Candles

Products: candle and wf bulb Area used in:  living room (candle) guest bathroom (wf bulb) Time Period: mid-February mid-March Description: The yer's first frost captured in a sparkling mix of white cranberry, juicy peach and red, ripe raspberries Missing notes: vanilla, pink currant, apples, strawberries This scent has been around for years (2009? 2010?) and I have always ignored it. I always wrote it off as a basic scent and could never see myself buying and burning it. I didn't think I could get into a cranberry scent that wasn't blended with pine or spice. Lately I've been trying to go outside the box and try scents that are always around but I always ignore thus I decided to give FC and try...and I gotta say I'm really glad I did! The performance on this badboi has been STELLAR! UTTER PERFCTION! First of all it burns like a friggin dream - high stepping flames that melt that the wax into a gorgeous crimson pool. And by some kind of miracle, the wax ...

Products: candle and wf bulbs Area used in:  living room Time Period: mid-February - mid-March Description: Add cheer to your winter with the crisp fragrance of mountain balsam, cedarwood bark and snow white cranberry So late winter is a weird time for me scent wise; I'm tired of all heavy holiday-ish pine and spice and bakeriness but I'm not ready for springtime florals. Around this time I tend to lean towards dark fruity but still wintery scents - cranberry, blackcurrant, pomegranate, pear. My late winter jam is Merry Mistletoe but BBW foolishly didn't release it this winter. I had my eye on this scent as it seemed like a scent I would like so I decided to give it a try. Burn-wise, this candle is a beast! That said it burns a little too quickly for me, quicker than usual. I have to be really sparing with how long I let it burn. The flames were always ridonkulously high and wax pool melted very quickly. It did stub out towards the bottom but once I did the infamo...

So for the past couple of years BBW has been suffering from Hawaii-itis. It first struck in 2014, then raged virulently in 2015 and now it's back like fresh batch of herpes. BBW has a very bad habit of beating dead horses into a bloody meatloafy pulp. Look at "all pumpkin and nothin but the pumpkin" collection we get consistently every fall. And there's the Watermelon Lemonades, Mahogany Teakwoods, Peony Petals and Vanilla Bean Marshmallows that are pushed in our faces every given opportunity. It would be one thing if we got some bomb ass (NEW) scents in these Hawaiiany collections and we did the first year...not so much lately. Just repackages or bodycare candles or repackages most of which have little to nothing to do with Hawaii - any excuse to have a bunch coconut/mango/hibiscus scents. Newsflash BBW, there are other tropical locales out there... How about...Jamaica? Personally I would never visit there as Jamaica is insanely homophobic, so a Jamaican them...

So here we are with yet another colllection "Hawaiian" themed scents..and I dunno about y'all but I'm kinda sick of em. BBW has simply done Hawaii and tropical scents to death. And it would be one thing if the scents they chose were truly provactive and truly tied to/inspired by the Hawaiian/Polynesian/Tahitian/Maori culture..nope not so much. You just get vaguely tropical sounding scents with a kitschy cliched names that have little to nothing to do with Hawaii. And this collection is the most annoying as all the scents are either based on bodycare or they're re-releases that we've seen over and over again and folks (myself included) are already over them. If I had my way and oversaw the conception/marketing/publicity of this collection, I'd do a complete overhaul. First of all, I'd gladly say aloha to the Hawaiian-esque theme altogether. I'd go back to basics - summer at the beach. I'd also take out all of the coconut heavy scents (4 coconu...

Since I was in the area, I decided to mosey on over to BBW to see if they had some of the new Hawaiian candles and lo and behold they did...well the main ones (except Fiji White Sands) and not the fancy glass ones. Alright, on with the review; I'm only gonna talk about the new scents (ie no Hawaiian Hibiscus, Rainforest Gardenia, Mahogany Coconut and Honolulu Sun) Waikiki Beach Coconut - Y'know, I've said it before and I'll say it again..I am not a fan of candles based on/inspired by bodycare. And on top of that, it's a coconut scent which as y'all know I loathe with a white hot passion. That said, I must say that this surprised me as I didn't dislike as much as I thought I would. So as y'all may (or may note), this based on the bodycare  of the same name. The coconut note on top isn't as obnoxious as it usually is in BBW candles; it's a fresh slightly sweet coconut water with a sprinkle of sea salt. The middle notes are a blend of powdery...

Products: candle  Area used in:  living room Time Period: mid-February - mid-March Description: Light up your holiday festivities with a sparkling blend of French Champagne grapes, nectarine and a pop of black currant inspired by the City of Light So for Mardi Gras, I like to have juicy bubbly dark fruit based candle. I've played around with scents in the past - Wine Down ~ Pomegranate Sangria , Sugarberry Spritzer and of course the classic Cranberry Pear Bellini ..which oddly was missing this winter. I had absolutely no interest in CPB's replacement, Pomegranate Prosecco Punch but I didn't have any other options. I contemplated getting a CPB off Evilbay when lo and behind Paris made it's grand appearance in the Holiday edition Destination candles. It was kismet - it was a dark fruity alcoholic-ish scent so it was just what I was looking for. And it's a French themed candle and Mardi Gras (and New Orleans in general) has French roots so it worked. But by t...

So as y'all know, after a 2 year absence, my bae is finally back in action...and I for one could not be happier! Granted I'm a little annoyed that it's a WB exclusive but hey beggers can't be choosers right?! I had two old BPB from '13 left, one of which I burned halfway thru last fall. And you could not find this damned candle anywhere, lord knows a bitch has been searching! So when I got wind that BPB was coming back as an exclusive and then finally seeing it for myself in person in the store (I did have a littel freak out cuz I didn't see it and a SA pointed it out to me) I was in my happy place and twerked with joy! I remember when I first huffed BPB, fall of 2012. This was back when I still lived in NOLA. My bf and I were in BBW sniffing all of the fall candles and we both came upon good ol BPB. We both looked each like "dafuq?!" Seriously what kind of scent combo is black pepper and bergamot?! And lavender?! We summoned our courage and take ...

Oh great, we're getting more Hawaiian themed candles...yaaaaaayyyyy! *eyeroll It looks like we're getting a trio of Hawaiian scents. The first group have really pretty tropical themed illustrations for the labels. Scent-wise it's half new scents (which seem to be inspired by soaps/bodycare) and half returning scents. New scents include... Tiki Mango Mai Tai - Drink in a tropical blend of mango nectar, jasmine flower and sunkissed grapefruit...now who wants to hula (I'm assuming this is inspired by the Maui Mango Mai Tai soap/pocketbac) Golden Pineapple Luau - Enjoy the fragrance of an island sunset and a Maitai in a blend of Maui pineapple, tropical hibiscus and luscious papaya (this could be White Island Pineapple ..or the Pineapple Palm Grass candle.. or even Pineapple Punch from back in the day. As long as it isn't Pineapple Mango, I'm good) Waikiki Beach Coconut - Dream of a Hawaiian beach escape with the fragrance of fresh coconut, saltwater b...

Okay y'all, can we talk about this collection? Is it just me or is this collection just all kinds of random? Why Italy?! What about these scents makes this collection Italian-y?! Tiki Beach..Fresh Bamboo...Sundrenched Mango...how is those Italian?! If BBW had just left this collection with no locale/destination attached to it and kept it as a vague summery/beachy /spa resorty collection, they would've worked but to call this collection "Ciao Italy"...really BBW?! Tiki Beach - Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy this scent...but wtf does this have to with Italy? Hello TIKI Beach! REPLACEMENT: Suntan/Beachside - this scent just makes more sense; it has that summer at the beach vibe - it reminds me of an old sunkissed fashionista getting her tan on at her beach resort Seaside Citrus - this is nice but it just doesn't have that interntional summer at the beach vibe that this collection is trying to convey REPLACEMENT: Lemon Cucumber - I friggin LOVE thi...

The bf and I decided to take a trip out to GSP to advatage of the 2/24 sale and to sniff/buy some new candles. They didn't have the Southern/80's wallpaper collection (oh well) or the Hawaiian collection (again, oh well) and Mediterranean Melon (once again, oh well) was the only scent missing from the Ciao Italy collection. Ok, let's begin with the White Barn Core exclusives... Black Pepper & Bergamot - omg..OMG...MY BAE IS BACK!!!! As elated as I am for its grand return, I must bear ever so slightly sad news....it's not exactly the same. The notes all smell the same but there's something different. Perhaps BBW used different or cheaper oils for this version but just doesnt smell as robust and bright as the old version. However other than that, its pretty much the same scent that I know and love! Spring - another amazing Slatkin era scent that I love that has made a grand entrance after an unexcusably long absence. But again, much like my bae, there...

So in a post I wrote awhile back, I mentioned with surprising optimism that at first glance that spring might not be a hot mess as it was in the past and that we might actually get to see some good stuff. Well I was wrong! It seems that BBW still refuses to learn from their mistake and are continuing to repackage trifling scents in uninspired collections with cutesy cutesy packaging to get the basic bitches of America happy! So let's start at the beginning... As y'all know, a new candle has popped up simply called "Love" ; crimson red wax with the same down home country packaging as that White Barn bakery collection . Intrigued? Don't be! It's the same "Love" candle from the Happy Home collection ...aka Mother's Day 2014/Pink Petals aka Peony Petals aka Electric Tokyo/Tokyo Petals...really BBW?! REPLACEMENT: Pink Petal Teacake : come the f***  on BBW!!! Give the f***ing people what they want! You know folks have been clamoring for that f...

Ok sooo, I dunno about y'all but I am sick to damn death of Destination candles. This collection just gets lamer and lamer and as usual catering to the basics. As usual, I've thought of better more fitting options... Brazil - this isn't going wide but still I think we can do better than friggin Mahogany Coconut REPLACEMENT: Rainforest Sugarcane - this was kinda weird but still nice...and it just makes more sense. Brazil is none for their rainforests...hello the Amazon! And there were note blends that were very similar to Brazil's nation drink - the caiprinha Hawaii ~   Oahu Coconut Sunset  - I dunno why BBW is pushing this scent so hard. And why didn't they name this candle after a city instead of the whole country like the rest of the candles in this collection. Very silly and lazy. REPLACEMENT: Pineapple Palm Grass - instead of catering to the basic bitches of America buy repackaging a bodycare based candle, release a candle that actually has something ...