Real Talk About Bath and Body Works Candles

Well gang, we didn't ask for em but we're gettin em  anyway...MORE TROPICAL CANDLES!!! YAY!!!! *EYEROLL So currently testing is a collection of (at the moment) 6 candles. Look-wise, they're very...umm..different. So the glass tumblers are..wait for it...ANIMAL SKIN PRINT! Snake, tiger, zebra, etc. I dunno what I think about that - on the one hand, animal print will ALWAYS be gaudy but other the other hand, at least they're doing something different look-wise but on the other other hand it's a case of style over substance with more emphasis and effort placed on the look and not the scents themselves. Anyway, there are 4 "new" scents... Waterfall Oasis - Rushing Water, Bright Pomelo Zest, White Woods (word on the street its Beach Day ..I'm not mad at that! It could also be last year's Sparkling Waves or  2013 failed test scent Whitewater Birch ) Black Pepper & Amber  - Warm Black Pepper, Golden Amber, Rare Tobacco Flower   (repackage of ...

The Coastal Oak & Seasalt candle scandal  raised another issue I have which has prompted me to write yet another rant! This, like my last one, is directed at snot-nosed knowitall teenybopper SAs who "think" they know all things fragrance. I'm also writing this for other reviewers, Instagrammers and candle lovers in general. This rant is about notes on the bottom of the candle... Back in the ancient days at the very beginning of Harry Slatkin's mighty reign of home fragrance, there were no notes on the bottom, you just had to make your own guesses and move on. Then eventually, Slatkin started mentioning notes, at least 5 maybe 6 just so folks could have a clearer idea of what they were sniffing. Over time, especially after Slatkin made his grand exit, the note descriptions become more and more verbose and superfluous like chapters out of "War & Peace" with little room for notes, which were whittled down to 3 at the most. Lately, and I must say I k...

So, as usual, I found myself in a bit of controversy. On Sunday I posted on Instagram about Coastal Oak & Seasalt  and that it's a repackage of Orange Blossom & Driftwood...and I stand by it. It's not opinion or a theory, it's a friggin fact. I owned OB&DW and only very recently brought it back to the store to exchange. That said, despite not being able to do a side by side, the scent was still fresh in my memory and I instantly recognized the blend in CO&SS; it had the same orange/bergamot/neroli blend that tickled my nose and upset my sinuses that OB&DW, which is why I brought it back to the store. I also posted the description notes for both candles as they're both suspiciously similar and anyone with a working brain, functioning eyes and a grasp on the English can spot out said similarities... - Orange Blossom Petals, Crisp Bergamot, Soft Sea Washed Wood - Oceanside Oak, Sparkling Bergamot, Sea Salt Crystals,  Sage So let's break it...

Because the bf is heading out of town today, yesterday he wanted to run errands. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by WB to pick up some stuff and sniff around, my first visit since the end of SAS. I feel like I'm one of the last people to sniff the relatively new "ribbed for your pleasure" candles so I'm glad I got to do that finally. As you know there's round one of the ribbed candles - Tiki Beach, Coconut Sandalwood, Black Pepper & Bergamot and Fresh Bamboo. The only "new" scents were... Sweet Peach & Nectarine - it's Malibu Citrus Glow from last spring/summer which was a repackage of Peach Bellini; a repackage of a repackage Cotton & Eucalyptus - straight up Frosty Air from last winter Now let's get on to the slightly more exciting part, round two - the newest and more tropical additions to the collection (with the exception of Blue Oceans Waves and Ocean Driftwood). Now I'm not usually taken in by pack...

So yet another random candle collection has hit test stores recently...and it is with a doubt the most boring, basic, underwhelming, uninspired, unnecessary collection ever. We got a lot of crap this spring but this collection is by far the worst, the crappiest of the crap! I dunno the name of the collection but it's basically a Freshed Picked-esque collection - an odd and bizarre mix of fruity, herbal and cologney scents. First of all, with the "Refresh" and the "Lattice" collections still in stores, do we need yet another fruits and herbs springtime collection?! That said, you would think despite being similar in theme and execution, this collection would have some really exciting blends and most importantly NEWNESS - y'know, something to make it stand out and be different. Yeah no, not so much! Take a gander what scents  BBW chose... Peach Bellini, Black Cherry Merlot, Eucalyptus Mint, Farmstand Apple, Indigo Sky and Fresh Cut Lilac a played o...

Just for shits and giggles, I decided to write a comprehensive list all the scents (between 2011-now) that have been repackaged and what they were from repacked from  *only added scents that were repackaged and marketed as a whole new scent, not scents that were just renamed but are the same scent = direct repackage += repackage with a twist/reformulation ?= possible repackage #EASTER  = Buttercream Frosting = Sparkle Everyday Confetti Cupcake =Frosted Cupcake Adobe Sunset = Spiced Citrus Sonoma Amsterdam = Flower Shop Apple Flower = Pink Apple Punch += Weekend Apple Picking += Green Apple Orchard +=Green Apple Champagne +=Wasabi Apple +=? Passionflower Apple Garland = WB Christmas 2012 = Apple Spruce Autumn Snow = Pinecone Banana Pumpkin Muffin += Banana Nutmeg Bread Pudding Bangkok = Tropical Spice Barcelona = Caribbean Salsa Bergamot & Suede = Ocean Drive = Michigan Avenue = Bergamot Woods = Villa Bergamot Black S...

So I was running errands and I just so happened to be near a BBW so you know I had to stop in. I wasn't expecting to see any newness but lo and behold, much to my surprise, the store had the Paradise candles I'll skip Mango Maitai , Mahogany Coconut , Island Margarita and Waikiki Beach Coconut cuz you guys all know what these smell like Aloha Kiwi Passionfruit -  as far as I can tell, this isn't a repackage of anything and is actually new. That said, it does kinda remind me of Pink Passionfruit from 2014 but I'm pretty sure it's not a repackage of that. So AKP is a melange of tropical fruit notes - you do get a dark, sweet yet slightly sharp passionfruit, maybe a hint of guava too. There's a slight hint of pineapple in the background and I dunno if the notes/power of suggestion are playing tricks with me but I totally smelled kiwi which was the only aspect of this blend that I liked. I didn't get coconut at all; if it's there, it's very fain...

ITS RAINING CANDLES! HALLELUJAH IT'S RAINING CANDLES!!! YOUTUBE.COM So we got a veritable deluge of candle-y newness today on social media; everytime you turned around, a new candle popped up! So let's start at the beginning... In case you didn't catch my last NEWNESS UPDATE , 3 more candles were added to the "Paradise" collection Mahogany Coconut (as if BBW would have a tropical collection and not toss this one in. I like MC but really?!) Beach Orchid (word on the street is it smells very similar to Rainforest/Seaside/White Gardenia but not a repackage) Sunsoaked Sandalwood (I think this may be Poolside Daydream , cant confirm just yet) Also Golden Pineapple and Oahu Coconut Sunset are available as wf bulbs only..maybe Next, a gang of "new" and really interesting sounding latecomers were added to the "Ribbed for your Pleasure ~Island edition" collection Palm Leaves & Mango - Paradise Mango, Palm Fronds, Creamy C...