Candles and more candles.

Hi and hello from Sunny Florida, 

As promised, I am gonna talk about some candles today. My sense of smell didn't return yesterday as I had hoped it would but today, despite working off the last little bit of this cold, I can finally smell again and it's wonderful! Funny how much I miss it when I can't.

So I posted the other day about my candle haul. Here it is.

This is what I walked away with on day one of the candle sale. Again, these are 2/$25, with the new sticker price of $22.50. I want to take a moment to talk about this pricing. Reiterating, I am not happy with the increase, as are folks rarely when prices go up. During my visit, I asked the manager on the shift if she had heard anything about why the prices went up, you know, curiosity getting the better of me and all. She had mentioned to me that the wicks were improved, though how she didn't say, to promote a more even burn and wax pool. She then sort of laughed and told me that I probably won't notice a difference. Well alrighty then.

Anyway, at this price point, picking up 3 candles is no longer the best value for your money. If that's the way you prefer to roll, then I give you more kudos, however each haul I am bringing less home. This particular day, I would have brought home six. Instead, I brought home four for the same price, plus some body care that's essentially make up to get it to $30. SAS leftovers saved me this time. It's much better to get something to bump it up to $30 or just above so you can use a coupon because then you're paying a few dollars less for the same two candles on sale, plus you're getting other product out of it. In my case, I complimented my two sets of candles with two Paris Nights, and two Sweet On Paris lotions at $2.75 each making each total $30.50 before coupons. 

Without further ado, I'd like to talk about what I bought.

Raspberry Peach Macaron: This has a light and fruity scent to it, complimented by a bakery scent that's just utterly delicious. I smell a lot more raspberry than peach. Instead of being in your face, the peach is nestled quietly into the background as an accessory rather than clumsily trying to steal the show. This one is easily my favourite of the bunch. It does give a similar vibe to Gelato, now that I'm able to smell the 3 Wick opposed to the mini candle, however it isn't a straight up repackage. I'll do a proper review once I get around to burning it. 

Cinnamon Sugared Doughnut: I never smelled the original - I imagine it doesn't smell any different though I can't say for sure. It smells just like a doughnut shop, minus the sweet custard fillings and jam. As a fan of old fashioned cake doughnuts, this one's a winner on cold throw so far. I look forward to burning it.

Tokyo Petals: I prefer the old name, Electric Tokyo, and it's packaging a lot more than this new label. They've girlified it. I mean don't get me wrong, it's got florals in it and all but I hate how everything has to be packaged in pretty pink. Anyway, despite the description "Cherry Blossoms", this is not a redo of Japanese Cherry Blossom. I can't stand Japanese Cherry Blossom. It's an overly floral scent with a heavy powdery thing going on with it, hot mess, not attractive. Tokyo Petals, however has a nice balance of sweet fruit and floral that isn't too much for the palate and funnily enough when I read the description, it was the last one I expected to actually pick up once candles went on sale. I have to say it smells like something I've smelled before at B&BW, but I can't say for sure what. Watch me figure it out whilst away and forget when I actually come back to type it up.

There you have it. I passed on Strawberry Sorbet as it's essentially a repackage of Strawberry Picnic, Watermelon Lemonade speaks for itself as it was released last year in the Lakeside collection, Red Velvet Cupcake was just out for Christmas (and a terrible performer so I hear), and Frosted Cupcake is one of the usual suspects.

The Destinations are looking great as usual, despite most of them being returning scents or former tests, I tend to treat it like Holiday candles, I just know there's the staple stuff. Like the core Spring collections for example. 

It is my wish for 2014 to be a much better year for candles. So far not a strong run out of the starting gate, but they've got all year to wow us.

2/$25 3 Wicks, $6 Sun, Air, Sky, $8 Select Body Care

Hey guys! Just back in from a trip out. First I stopped by my local British grocer for some cup a soup, as I have a particular fondness for Oxtail when I'm sick and I got some homemade scones while I was at it. Next I went to Bath and Body Works and here's what I've seen.

75% Bins or towers will be there to clear out what's left. I got 2 more Sweet On Paris and 2 more Paris Nights lotions. I'm drastically cutting down on body care, so I am only buying what I know I love and a lot of it in case it doesn't come back. 

$8 Select Specialty Body Care. Didn't notice if this was in store actually as I got distracted, but you'll see online that almost all of the Aromatherapy and True Blue Spa is on an $8 each special right now. With the candles being 2/$25, add an $8 item and it goes to $33 just like with the old candle sales, so I'm thinking a bit of a compromise maybe. 

$6 Select Body Care - Sun, Air, Sky can be purchased for $6 per item in stores and online. In stores, the signs read "Excludes Diamond Shimmer Mist" however online, they are included.

2/$25 Candles. The dreaded candle sale. I can't say I'm happy with the sale. It beats paying full price but I was barely used to 2/$22. 

I bought four candles whilst out today, but I'll post about them tomorrow. I've smelled them before I got sick so I know I like them but I won't be able to tell you my thoughts about them today as I can barely smell right now. Be looking for that in the next few days when my sense of smell returns proper. I got 2 Raspberry Peach Macaron, 1 Cinnamon Sugared Doughnut, and 1 Tokyo Petals (I liked Electric Tokyo better for a name but oh well.)

Let's talk NEW

Hey guys!

I went to B&BW a couple days ago and hauled away some stuff, getting my last pickin's for the SAS (gotta have enough SoP in case it disappears for a lengthy time, you don't wanna know how many I ended up with really!) and whilst there, claiming the Facebook offer on B&BW Facebook Page for a free travel size Sun, Sky or Air lotion.

Here's what I left with. They didn't have many of the Sweet Shop pocketbacs yet, so I got a couple Destination ones I had been meaning to grab. The little glass bottle in the middle is the Mad About You EDT preview that is presently available for $4, I'll talk about that in a bit. 

Strawberry Parfait: Sickly sweet, artificial strawberry scent with a hint of a whipped cream thing going on. I say sickly like it's a bad thing. It's not awful! I didn't see that this one has glitter in it.

Ice Cream Dream: Generic vanilla scent. That's pretty much all that needs said.

Strawberry Cheesecake: That same sickly sweet Strawberry scent is back, with a hint of cream cheese. Also contains glitter. Feh.

Cherry London: Cherry reused again for a cute little pocketbac. Let's be honest, I'm obsessed with England, London and everything British so I HAD to buy it.

Berry Paris: I think of the blue Kool Aid every time I smell this one. Nice!

Now, for my thoughts on my two freebies.

Sun: By far my favourite of the three, which is funny considering it's the one I least expected. It's got a soft, floral smell in the bottle, and on the skin with a hint of a fruity sweetness that's quite pleasant and not off-putting as I find many florals to be. It keeps a very nice fragrance balance and continues to smell good, though the smell does seem to fade quicker than I'd like. I might evaluate buying this set.

Air: Didn't like it as much I as I thought I might. I love pear to the core but I have bad luck with anything pear scented and not liking it. In the bottle, it's got a crisp, pear mingling with a floral that doesn't really compliment it at all. On my skin, it turns not so pleasant once it's completely dry.

I smelled Sky in store but I hated it. 

Just look at this fracking cute bottle. This is my inner girl coming out. This does not happen often, do not be alarmed. Just throw chocolate at her and she'll go away.

Ahem. It's a very heavy on the floral side scent, but again, the mixture is very nice and continues to be once the perfume has dried and been there for a while. Not something I'd wear all the time but might be a nice once in a while. It's an extremely girly scent in the sense that just the mere fragrance evokes images of pretty pink flowers. I'm curious to smell the lotion and hope I don't hate it as I just don't get along with florals really.

And that wraps it up. Tomorrow starts the candle sale, at the new price of 2/$25, not excessively thrilled but I'll still buy. Just a lot less. Dying for Raspberry Peach Macaron and Cinnamon Sugared Doughnut.

Diamond Shimmer Mist + Sun, Air, Sky

I'm quite forgetful today. A little more information that I meant to unload in my sweet shop post, man I'm slacking!

The Shimmer Mists appeared in the SAS sale bins opening day and were wiped off the shelves (whilst the butters were both in bins and on shelves until a week ago, why I don't know.) because they were to be discontinued to make way for the Diamond Shimmer Mist for the signature collection. My store had them out today. As far as I can tell just appears to be the same old thing but in the current Fine Fragrance Mist bottle, in other words, the one you can't open up. The book lists "real diamond dust" posted here by Tess. The regular Shimmer Mist bottles I noticed had issues with leaking and getting jammed up so we'll see if this is an improvement.

Last item on the list is Sun, Air, and Sky mini lotions are previewing in stores currently (most of the full line is already available online.) for $3 ea. or 3/$6. The only one that I found remotely interesting was Pear Blossom Air but not interesting enough to buy. 3/$6 doesn't happen often so jump on that if you want it!

Pack Rat Instincts Kicking In ... NOW!

Hi and hello once again, 

Upon getting out of the shower today and then looking at B&BW's website, I decided I had to have all the Sweet on Paris I could lug out of there. Well, not really, but with the rising prices and a lack of stuff I'm liking (I smelled the new Sky, Air, Sun line, don't like it.) I might as well grab the stuff I like while it's still there. After using Sweet on Paris for a couple weeks now, I'm pretty much in love with it. I wish it were slightly stronger but oh well.

This was basically my hoarding haul from the SAS. The rest of signatures are 75% off, if you can find any of it. The first store I went to only had SoP in shower gel but they called my local store for me and reserved lotions which turned out to be unnecessary as they still had a massive stockpile of it. The Amber Blush souffle was finally 75% and they only had 3 left, so I got it and wandered around with it whilst smelling the new candles which I posted about in my last entry and then I found the last Amber Blush shimmer mist lumped in a nearly empty box of creamy body washes. This Forever Red Golden Sugar scrub was the last one I could find also, so why not? 

The stores are pretty bare, and online isn't the greatest either. The prices of the shower gels and lotions keep going $4-5, depending on the day you look. I got the ones above in store for their $3 sig returning scents. I kept forgetting to pick up a Paris Nights to go with my shimmer mists from last SAS. Online there's still some seasonal stuff which I haven't seen in store now for some days, oh except the first store had a Winter Candy Apple TMC and the second had a mini spray. It's mostly leftover old packaging now. 

So not even really a treasure hunt today so much as I had a specific intent and found a few goodies along the way. I'm planning to go through my stash some time and organise it further. I'd take a picture of it but I'll admit I might be slightly embarrassed. Lol.

Forever Midnight TMC $8, Sweet Shop Soaps, Candles

Hi, hello,

The Forever Midnight TMC is currently on sale for $8 in stores, I was hoping it'd include Forever Red but no such luck. I picked one up to complete a trio for PIC's sister and along with it, my usual store had put up the Spring St. Sweet Shop hand soaps. 

The "flavours" if you will that they had out were Sugar Berry Shortcake, Plum Berry Sorbet, Fresh Honeydew Lemonade, Orange Creamsicle Swirl, Lemon Chiffon Tart and Pink Vanilla Macaron. 

Notably I saw the whole scentportable section for 75% off, however I suspect it might be the same case as the candles, they haven't got any more in yet is my guess.

So here's what I got for the soaps and my thoughts are as follows.

Pink Vanilla Macaron: To my nose it's a rather plain vanilla scent with a hint of fruity and of course, the alcohol smell that is troubling to disassociate from the scent. 

Sugar Berry Shortcake: A staple sweet and fruity with a hint of sugar scent. Not bad.

Plum Berry Sorbet: Plums and berries, quite tart. Not as great as I hoped but I'll keep it. 

Fresh Honeydew Lemonade: Reminds me a little of the watermelon lemonade candle, actually. I like it a lot more than I figured I would.

Orange Creamsicle Swirl: This one's pretty hard to describe, I definitely smell the orange but it's not a plain orange, it's got a hint of sweetness about it. It reminds me of a candy shop we've got here. 

My store was also setting up some of the new candles. The Destinations scents that were out were all returning scents, so nothing new there other than labeling and price. The store manager did confirm that the new 2 for candle sale price would be 2/$25. Makes me not a happy camper at all. 

Anyway, here's what they had and what I thought of it:

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut: What it says on the tin. I love it, reminds me of Dunkin Donuts or something of the same like. I am a big fan of plain old cake donuts so it's a nice foodie scent for those who adore it.

Pink Lemonade Poundcake: From what I could get out of the mini candle it was kind of a generic lemon smell, didn't smell strong to me at all. I'll have to give the three wick a whiff.

Watermelon Lemonade: What can I say? Same thing! And still love it! Still not sold on the yellow wax though.

Strawberry Sorbet: Worst fear was confirmed with this one. It smells good, but the trouble is, from mini candle whiff all I could think of was Strawberry Picnic.

Lemon Drop: Not Limoncello but not fantastic either. Very strong on the lemon. I'll have to get a 3 wick whiff I think to full pass judgment. 

Raspberry Peach Macaron: This one I forgot to highlight actually in my post yesterday. Apologies! Now, I don't have the notes on hand, but I have to say, as someone that really, really hates Peach, I just adore this candle. Honestly. Peach is on the back burner and this one I am excited for. I can't even describe it, just so wonderful and sweet. I wonder if it's anything like the Paris candle Sweet Macaron. While I personally did not get to smell this one as I missed the Paris run, we know they like reusing scents and this would be welcome to folks like me who missed some of the great stuff.

Candle Rants of a Madwoman

Hi, hello again!

I was reading over Tess's posted (linked in previous entry) and I just got to thinking about some of the candle scents. I'm aggravated about the prices as I hinted previously but being the wax addict I am, I feel the need to speculate and comment. I should note I've not smelled any of these candles yet (or Destinations) so this is purely off the notes, and again, more of a rant than anything.

*I'm only highlighting a few of them.*

Watermelon Lemonade: "Quench your thirst for long summer days with this refreshing mixture of watermelon ice, sparkling water and freshly squeezed meyer lemons" 

Same exact script. Ok, this was a fantastic candle last year (not digging the yellow wax this year, though I guess it makes sense) but I mean, it was a summer candle. This is January for crying out loud. I know B&BW has a heart on (yes pun intended) for recycling or scents and stuff but a Summer scent for Spring? Blimey. I hope they've got something else in mind for Summer then, AGAIN not that I don't adore this candle.

Strawberry Sorbet: "A cool new treat to delight your senses, sorbet made with the sweetest sun ripened strawberries, spun sugar, and a touch of vanilla." 

Am I the only one getting the Gelato vibe off this? Minus the raspberry notes, it's a dead ringer. And while I love raspberry (and Gelato candles in general), I am hoping this will be better.

Lemon Drop: "That magnificent mouth puckering mixture of sweet and tart is captured in this blend of lemon zest, sugar crystals and a hint of vanilla."

Limoncello? I mean we already have Cheers to Capri and the Sugared Lemons from 2013 Winter Market here. I don't care if you feel like bringing scents back, if you're gonna do it, at least be blatant. For a word to the wise: We dig returning scents. We don't dig scents relabeled with the same notes or similar. 

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut: "share the delight of of a freshly baked vanilla cake doughtnut covered in sugar crystals and crushed cinnamon." 

It's my understanding that Cinnamon Sugared Donut was a candle before my time as it were, shopping B&BW I mean, so I'm guessing this a blatant bring backsie. Yes, I like this! Never smelled the candle, dying to. But blatant is good! At least there's the honesty! Like "here you go, we know you like it so instead of trying to fool you, you can have it again!"

Returning scent: Frosted Cupcake which hardly bears the need for rementioning as it's pretty much constantly around and constantly a disappointment. The scentportable is nice though!

I have to say I prefer this over the whole floral, or grassy types. But I feel like half the Sweet Shop line is rehashing and there's no subtly to it. I would be lying if I said I didn't want another Watermelon Lemonade, let's be honest here, I was kicking myself for only buying two of them back in the Summer and I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in smelling Strawberry Sorbet but this is part of what's upsetting me lately with B&BW. 

I suppose I can go wallow in my candle collection. Not that I haven't got enough candles for a couple years.

Information Pending

Hi and hello guys and gals,

Just a small update for what is coming, what will be, whatever you wanna call it.

• Candles: Now priced at $22.50 vs. the old $20.00. Sales will now run as 2/$25 instead of 2/$20. All I can say is I am glad I bought a crapton of candles because I really don't know if I am still going to continue buying them at this price.
• Creamy Body Wash is being discontinued. What's left is all there is, get yours now. I remember someone commenting once that they didn't see the need to make the shower gels richer but I suppose this was the purpose. No more use for the body wash though I have to say I have a preference. Next.
• Body Butter is being discontinued as well. True Blue Spa is still going to have theirs but no more signature. So soon after new artwork and finally a Pink Chiffon! If I had known I would've bought more. 
• Wondered why Shimmer Mists were in the bins, now I know! Thanks to Tess of course, they are discontinuing and being replaced by Diamond Shimmer Mist. Check that out here along with other Spring news (candles and body care!)

With some of these changes, I'm foreseeing shopping a little less. Admittedly the body butters and body washes I didn't use a ton of, I enjoyed them and I feel like they are reducing their collection. With the inflating prices, I dunno. It's a bit off-putting to me! Perhaps I'm talking out of my arse a bit. I know I'll go back but still. Not liking the direction this is going in.

I should add that the candle sale thing isn't completely confirmed (I've seen a few B&BW employees mentioning it) so if I'm wrong, throw a shoe at me and kiss me. The other thing is that the Creamy Body Wash and Body Butters were replies from the reps over at the B&BW Facebook page. 

Forever Red: Vanilla Rum; a quick look.

Hi, hello there. 

I recently purchased some of the discounted Vanilla Rum products that were released by B&BW for the winter season to try them out as I love the original Forever Red. Below are my thoughts!

Out of the bottle, the body cream smells essentially like a thick, creamy vanilla with a deeper hint of rum than the original, however it lacks the fruity notes mixed in. On my skin, before it dries it smells, well, basically like I've spilled a shot of rum on myself. And not in a good way. It's very strong, very alcohol smelling. The point of the Vanilla Rum of course, was the focus on the rum aspect of Forever Red and the fruity is completely gone to my nose, replaced with a thick floral. Quite frankly, I find the scent headache inducing. I had tried the EDT in store one day after work as I smelled horribly of grease and chalked up the alcohol smell as mostly the EDT itself. It sadly wasn't. 

If I had one wish for this scent, it'd be to make it slightly weaker. Perhaps the strength is a plus but I can honestly barely smell much else besides rum. I love rum as much as the next gal but I'm not so sure I want to smell like I've just come from the bar or spilled a drink. 

It takes a while for the scent to die down a little, where it's a bit more bearable and less boozy and I quite like it at that point but it takes some will to make it through the first hour or so of application. 

Bottom line: I don't care for it and I'll stick to the original Forever Red. Just glad I stuck to the mini mist instead of breaking out the full size mist.

SAS: One last go.

You know how it goes when I say last. 

Anyway, I wasn't feeling great yesterday. Hadn't slept well at all, and the nap I got left me feeling rather icky. I decided to get up and go out as I needed odds and ends from Target anyway and of course, B&BW is right by there so why not?

Behold my loot! I was excited to find a Marshmallow Fireside Wallflower hanging out with the bunch of Winter Fig. The Luxe hand soaps went 75% off which was my motivation for buying it, I absolutely love these soaps far more than the standard ones as they don't leave my hands even slightly dry like even the moisturizing ones kind of do. I got the last two mini mists from Vanilla Rum and one more cream for measure. Sweet On Paris is actually a funny story. When I take PIC with me to B&BW, I have him keep tabs on my current total as he's very excellent and fast with maths. He thought I had $30 worth without SoP but the cashier told me my total was $27 so I picked it up and when we got home, we found out the cashier had not scanned the soap as it was not listed on the receipt.

I'm gonna bring it up next time I go and offer to pay for it as I feel kind of bad about it. 

Happened to you? Stories welcome! Did you keep the item and not say anything else or go back and pay for it?

New Year's Day brings a gem my way!

Okay, that was really bloody awful and cheesy. I would apologise if I weren't so excited about my trip to B&BW today. I asked PIC if we could go over to the other one in this county that we've not visited yet, the one we hit up day one as our third stop last SAS just to see. Last SAS, it's the location where I found Campfire Cookout and once again, while browsing and not really intending to buy unless I could find Snow Day wallflowers or candles, I sure spent again!

Can you say Snowed In?! I'm not really sure why but some stores sell these square label candles that I typically see by the wallflowers labeled tester while others don't. This particular store had a lot of them and I almost got a Cinnamon Tea one until I found a second Snowed In candle. I first heard of this candle some time last year, though I came aboard the B&BW wagon a bit late to get my hands on any so imagine my excitement upon finding these! Seeing them reminded me of Donovan over at Real Talk About B&BW Candles as he has in the past written about this particular scent. One of them has got a different lid though and I sniffed all the gold ones I could to try to find which one it was switched with but I suspect it was probably purchased. Oh well! I have to say I am quite fond of the cold throw on this baby and look forward to burning it. 

Champagne Toast however was the only 3 Wick candle they had leftover from the holidays in the 50% section and initially I had bought one for PIC's dad's girlfriend, now there's a doozy to say, but ended up liking it so much I bought myself one and I was struggling to find stuff to buy so I suppose I'll either keep or gift it. I snapped up the last Snow Day wallflower of course, and the last AT ES sugar scrub.

I didn't really care for the golden sugar scrub I've smelled in Forever Red but I'll give this one a shot.

Anyway that pretty much sums up my unexpected purchase today. I hope everyone is having a fantastic first day of the new year! PIC is due home shortly with a sushi plate from our favourite place. Off to work on those resolutions of mine!