(FAILED) TEST SCENT REALNESS: Coconut Palm & Lime *COLD SNIFF REVIEW

Products: candle
Area used in: living room
Time Period: planned for next summer

Description: Island Coconut, Tropical Greens, Fresh Lime Zest

When this collection came out, I was really intrigued with this scent in particular. Of course, the whole collection failed and although these have popped up in random stores across the country, none of the stores in my area that I visited had them. Just when I had abandoned any hope of getting my hands on this candle, an angel of mercy appeared (my candlebuddy @spektorologist, on IG) and gifted me with this rare find. So sweet, right? Now (at the risk of sounding ungrateful, which I'm not BTW) that I finally have this in my possession, I can say with no amount of uncertainty it's not all that great.

First off, I want to talk a bit about the label. Now I'm not one of these individuals who are taken in by labels and only buy candles for the packaging. Moreover, I've always found animal print on anything to be gaudy and tacky. That said, I was initially turned off by the animal print labels in this collection particularly because they had nothing to do with the scents; as usual there's no theme or cohesion and it seems like BBW just slapped on these labels just for the sake of using them and to give off the illusion of upscale-ness. But I must say after seeing this candle in person, I'm kinda impressed with the label. It's not just matte wraparound photo, the label actually has texture; it feels like (fake) snakeskin and there's a smooth shiny polish to it. While impressive, it is unfortunate that so much time and effort was wasted on a somewhat mediocre scent that ended up not going wide.

So when I first smelled it, it immediately made me think of Palm Leaves & Mango; the two could be twins as they both similar and share base notes - just replace the mango note and lime. It's also extremely similar to the now forgotten Coconut Lime Breeze and Coconut Lime Verbena. The first note that you get is creamy sweetened coconut milk followed by a subtle soft creamy wood note, sandalwood and/or cedar. Behind that is wet, lush greeniness ("palm leaves") that gives the blend a tropical and summery outdoorsiness. Finally there's the lime note or rather lime-esque note as it doesn't smell like actually lime zest or peel or juice. It's reminds me of the "lime" note that's in Tequila Lime Cupcake (which harkens back to the Coconut Lime Verbena, which the two are so close to point of being borderline dupes). It's not actually lime but rather a blend that smells vaguely lime-esque - my guess is citron  with maybe some verbena (which can smell lime-y depending on variety). Lime can be a potent fragrance note so perhaps BBW went the citron route as it's less intrusive and more guest friendly. Who knows!

In conclusion, CP&L is a cute scent but it's nothing special. It's a little disappointing that it's both familiar smelling and slightly underwhelming but that's par for the course with BBW lately. If like me you're intrigued with this scent, don't be. Don't bother looking for this on the black market or asking a candlebuddy to mail you one, it's not worth it.