SCENT EXPOSÉ: The Everlasting Enigma of Evening Hearth

Remember awhile back, there was the blue dress/gold dress fiasco? Well Evening Hearth is the candle equivalent - everbody is smelling totally different things with little to NO agreement.

I've heard everything from Cinnamon to Chestnut & Clove to Pumpkin Fireside to Ski Lodge to a spicy version of Evergreen

And while those all sound random AF, I can kinda see where folks are coming from (Evening Hearth ISN'T any of those BTW)

So what can it be?!

Well there are 3 past candles that it's the closest to...

So Autumn Night was a one hit wonder from 2014. Essentially it was Acorn & Fig/Autumn Day with the birch removed and added cinnamon bark and heavy cardamom with a touch of smokiness.

I can tell you with no amount of uncertainty that EH is NOT Autumn Night. And I'm not going by scent memory; I actually have an AN wf bulb plugged in my bathroom so I get reacquainted with the scent everyime I showever or answer the call of nature. Now they are both wood based scent with a touch of fruitiness and they do share an intense pop of cardamom but that's where it ends. They are both very similar but definitely not one in the same. Think of EH as AN's litle brother.

Pumpkin Hayride, like AN, was another one hit wonder as well as a very late addition to the all pumpkin collection back in 2013. PH was..uumm..well...intersting and unique. While I am all for pumpkin scents that aren't bakery and cinnamon'ed to death, this was a little too out there for me to enjoy. It was a very outdoorsy smell, think barn/farm yard - like you could smell wood and hay/straw and cornhusks. Absolutely NO pumpkin ..surprise surprise...though there was something about that kinda smelled like instant oatmeal, like the maple one mixed with the pumpkin spice or apple cinnamon

So EH is very similar PH...so much so that I really did think it was a straightup repackage. I was talking with my candlebuddy Josh/Touchthefiretwice and asked him what he thought since he actually owned PH; after comparing, he was convinced that they were similar but not the same. After smelling it again, I knew that Josh was right. They both do have that craft store, Michael's in the fall, country market vibe and they both share that cardamom note..though it's more intense in PH (Josh always says that PH, especially after burning, smels like Indian food becuase of the heavy cardamom). But EH isn't nearly as outdoorsy as PH and is missing that hay/straw/cornhusk vibe. Again, they two are similar but not the same.

This candle was one of 2 non bakery pumpkin scents (Pumpkin Fireside aka Campfire Pumpkin) in 2016's all pumpkin collection. And like Pumpkin Fireside, it was (I believe) a WB exclusive. As a non-bakery pumpkin scent, it intrigued me and I remember having in my basket in line to buy only to end up putting it right back on the shelf.

So scent-wise, it was very similar to Welcome~Spiced Autumn Wreath from the previous year - not as heavy on the pine/balsam, a little cinnamon bark-y and a lot of added cedar

Now out of these 3 scents, PW was the scent that came up the most in online conversation; sooooooo many people said that EH was a straightup withoutadoubt repackage of PW. I personally didn't think so - the spice blend was similar although PW didn't have cardamom. Also EH wasn't quite as heavy on the cedar and there's definitely a fruitiness that PW lacked. Quite a few people agreed, especially a few who actually owned PW and compared.

But here's where things get weird.

So there were a substantial number of folks online who were adamant that it was indeed a repackage of EH. And there was an equal amount of people had PW in their possession who they were same as those who said they weren't. I posted about this candle on IG and in the midst of the conversation, a SA posted that the boxes that EH came in actual said..wait for it.. PUMPKIN WOODS!

Is it possible that there are 2 batches of EH? It's certainly possible as it is a phenomenon that BBW has done quite frequently - they'll release a "test version" (the scent that came out when the collection was testing" as well as changed, more palatable customer friendly version; sometimes one instead of the other, sometimes one after the other, sometimes all at the same time. Hell years ago, I smelled 3 distinctly different versions of Red Radiant Maple not just at the same store but on the same display. So it is possible that there is a testing batch of EH and a wide release batch of EH..though I dunno which is which.

So what about the version that doesn't smell like PW?

Here's what I personally get...

So I get a woody base of mainly cedar, maybe some oak, maybe some sandalwood. And there's soft almost creaminess that could be sandalwood but it could be from the cashmere. Now "cashmere" in home fragrance is not supposed to smell like cashemre but give the blend of soft warmness like you're wearing cashmere. "Cashmere" is actually a sythentic blend more commonly known as "blonde woods". I get some spices, mainly cinnamon bark and cardamom. And I do get the "warm cider" aspect; like mulled hot cider or apple cinnamon flavored tea. I honestly do get the image the scent is conjuring - sitting in front of the fireplace sipping a spiked cider or a hot toddy on a cool mid to late fall evening.

So if I had to describe it plainly, it would say think Welcome ~ SAW mixed with Autumn Night mixed with Pumpkin Hayride.

Now that doesn't mean that EH is a repackage of any of those, it just has similar aspects. I think because BBW has released soooooo many blatant repackages, we are conditioned to think that everything new is a repackage. Futhermore, scents that smell similar to other scents doesn't necesarily make it a repackage. Like The Perfect Autumn; I see people on social media say that it's a repackage of Frosted Cranberry..it ain't, it's just similar. And it has aspects to other candles and their notes; I get Leaves/Spiced Apple Toddy and Tis the Season vibes in TPA...but it isn't a repackage of any of them. Same goes with the non-PW version of EH.

Oh Evening Hearth, you are truly a riddle wrapped in a mystery in an enigma