BLAST FROM THE PAST: Seaside Escape (2012)

Products: candle   
Area used in:  living room
Time Period: mid July - September

Description: Go seaside with a tropical island blend of luscious guava and passionfruit, infused with juicy watermelon and rich tonka bean

Missing notes: strawberry, pineapple

Trivia: first released in 2010

So I know a lot of folks are in full on fall mode or are gearing to be...not me. With the blistering heatwave sizzling the Northeast like eggs on a griddle, I'm not even thinking of fall. As much as I would enjoy a little reprieve from the heat, I'm not quite ready to give in to fall mania and have been holding on greedily to these last couple of weeks of summer. That said, I've been thoroughly enjoying this now long forgotten summer classic.

So I've talked about this before - back in th early days of my burgeoning candle obsession, I completely ignored tropical beachy summery fruity scents. I remember the last time I ever saw it stores - summer SAS 2012. BBW brought back a crapload of Slatkin era tropical scents - Tropical Spice, Passionflower, Caribbean Salsa, etc. I remember smelling SE and putting it back down...very stupid on my part. My tastes have changed over tge years and I've become more open-minded; that said, to make up for my willful ignorant indifference, I've been finding scents that I turned my nose up backintheday to give them a second chance..such was the case with SE.

So performance-wise, it was pretty shitty. Candles from spring 2012 had notoriously craptastic burns and this one was not the exception. The wicks totally stubbed out with wimpy flames and white ashy crap instead of mushroom tops...

I had to do that cotton ball trick at least 3 or 4 times which such a waste of wax. However it was worth putting up with all the crap. The throw was an absolutely knockout; it filled my entire living room and the scent lingered hours after a blew the flames out.

Scent-wise, it's kinda difficult to describe..typical of Slatkin's classic scents. Like most of his popular scents, it's a blend of scents that you would think wouldn't go together until you smell it.It's so wonderfully complex despite how simplistic the notes sound.  It's an exquisite and surprisingly high-end melange of fruit notes yet it's obnoxiously sweet. The main note that you get is a fresh crisp sweet watermelon note that's neither Jolly Rancher-esque nor seawatery. And you have pineapple that adds to the juiciness and wateriness. Then you get from deep juicy creamy passionfruit and guava and the tonka bean gives it some depth and adds to the creaminess. It's so smooth and crisp and refreshing - to me when I smell this, it makes me think of being on the beach drinking ice cold fruity alcoholic beverage while listening to the waves crash on the beach. My black readers will get this reference but SE kinda reminds of Blue Magic hair grease which takes me back to my childhood hanging out with my girl cousins in the summer.

SE is far cry from the crap that we usually see for summer - it's not based off a bodycare, it's not candy sweet, and there's neither mahogany, gardenia or coconut. It's a perfect scent to cool you down on a sweltering summer day like we've been having lately. And what I love about this scent is that is transports you and makes you feel like everything is alright with the world. It's really one of the best tropical/beachy/fruity I've ever smelled. BBW really needs to bring this scent back!