ON THE FENCE: Driftwood Surf (2016 vers)

Products: candle and wf bulb
Area used in: bedroom
Time Period: end of May - 4th of July

Description: Hear the sound of rustling palm leaves above white sand beaches when you breath in the scent of Caribbean coconut, watery citrus and sea salted driftwood

New Notes: Salty Sea Breezes, White Pineapple, Warm Coconut Wood

As a rule, I tend to prefer manly "cologney" scents in my boudoir and well, manly cologney scents are very few and far in between in the summertime lately. I saw this in the "Beach House" collection last summer and grabbed it out of desperation. I assumed since it was a new, decent, non-basic conceptual scent that wasn't going to come back but sure enough it reappeared in the Ribbed for your pleasure/Times New Roman" collection this summer.

So I was kinda diggin it on cold sniff; definitely can't deny that it's a masculine scent - very bodycare-ish like a summery body spray for men (it also ever so slightly reminds me of the Paris bodycare for men). However it's one of those scents that confounds and I can't exactly pinpoint actual notes. I get the driftwood aspect - oak perhaps, a little teakwood with a salty ozonic sear air vibe. I get coconut but it's not coconut water or meat or milk but rather the husk, like a uncut coconut fresh from the tree. Speaking of trees, I sorta get something green in the background, like palm leaves. Then there's the citrus; the this year's notes mention pineapple...maybe? It's tricky, I guess I can smell that but it may just be the notes playing subliminal games with my nose. Whatever the "citrus" may be, it isn't your typical lemon or lime or orange; I dunno if it's pineapple per se, but it is a sugary sweet summer fruit note.

So yeah, the cold sniff was pleasant enough for me to buy it as it fulfilled what I was looking for - a summery manly scent. However, I started burning it recently and whatever slight satisfaction I had for this scent went right out the window - it's smells like straight up chemicals, almost bug spray-ish. And despite having skinny wicks, the flames were high and burned really quickly. Sometimes you would get small whiffs of what the scent was supposed to smell like but for the most part it just smelled plasticy and chemically and eventually I would have to blow it up. The wf bulb on the other hand is really pleasant; the throw is the strong and the notes are balanced. I will say, even though I'm not a huge fan of earthy brown/tan/sand tones, this candle is gorgeous to burn - amibience out the wazoo! Too bad I'm not a big fan of the scent.

If you're intrigued with this scent, buy with caution. Hopefully BBW fixed the chemical smell probably with this new version and it's totally possible that my 2016 version was a dud..you just never know. Air on the side of caution when buying this candle and keep your receipt for an exchange.