HOT MESS AWARD: White Pumpkin

Products: candle
Area used in: living room
Time Period: end of October - Thanksgiving

Description: White Pumpkin, Autumn Spice, Ground Cinnamon

This is one of those few rare instances where I had to push myself to write a review because I just didn't have inate desire to. I thought, "oh well, better late than never" and so here we are.

So as you know, I have a love/hate relationship with BBW's "pumpkin" scents so initially I didn't think much about this, Although based on the notes and what I heard on social media, I did wonder if were granted some Slatkin-era throwback; it sounded suspiciously like Creamy Pumpkin - a former fall favorite/staple that eventually fell into test scent Purgatory (eclipsed by a similar smelling scent called Pumpkin Caramel Latte that grew to be more popular) and evebtually was completely forgotten.

So I finally got to sniff it and I was about 85% sure that it was Creamy Pumpkin repackage (I had a 1wick of it but gave it away years ago thus I had to go by scent memory). I posed a quandry on social media and fellow ol schoolers said that they agreed. For the sake S&Gs , it ended up getting one to try. Little did I know how much of a huge dissapoint it would turn out to be.

Like I said, I was only 85% sure that it was Creamy Pumpkin. Well that percentage went down the more I burned it. But even that wasn't my problem with this candle. First of all, the scent throw was borderline unexistant; you literally had to over it to get even a semblence of fragrance. What I did smell didn't give me as much Creamy Pumpkin vibes as it did on cold throw.

There was also this....

WTF?!!!

I've had a few candles over the years with craptastic burns and canyoning/tunneling action...but nothing quite this bad! Right at mid-burn, the one wick just decided not to work. While I was very much within my rights to bring back to the store to exchange but I just think it's an asshole move to bring any candle burnt past mid burn back so I just dealt with it. Eventually I put it on a candle warmer to completely melt down and it did auto correct afterwards but the fact that I had to do that at all is ludicrous.

As is often the case, I had accompanying wf bulbs plugged in and they were lovely. The fact the bulbs were stronger than the candle was utter BS

So what does WP smell like?

Right off the bat, it didn't smell like pumpkin..surprise friggin surprise. A pumpkin scent that doesn't smell like pumpkin is par for the course with BBW. You mainly get a melange of "autumnal" spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe some allpsice. There is a tiny hit of ginger and that along with the autumnal spices give it the illusion of pumpkin. And there is some savory caramel but it's not the sickenly sweet oeey goeey gloopy caramel note you get in BBW's usual autumnal/holiday bakery scents but an almost bodycare like caramel. There's also a creaminess but 'm not 100%sure what it's from - it could vanilla bean or tonka bean or just sandalwood. Despite the notes, it's not exactly gourmand/bakery; it's oddly conceptual in the same Creamy Pumpkin, WB1 Nutmeg & Spice, Kitchen Spice and Lavender Caramel have gourmand notes but isn't neccesarily a gourmand scent.

At the moment, the candle isn't available online or in most stores...count your blessing as you aren't messing much. DO NOT spend any extra money getting it on Ebay or Mercari or Poshmark; it's not worth it and you'll just be disappointed. If you're remotely intrigued and are feeling as though you're missing anything, get the wf bulbs; theyre easily available and have better performance.