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.

Current Bounceback handout + Sales + First impressions

Hey again guys! Today I have images of the current bounceback being handed out in stores right now along with some thoughts about the new packaging and Amber Blush. 

Advertising the new look. Free body care item of your choice with any purchase of $10 or more (up to $13 value)

Front, excuse the glare. Advertising the new look on a lot of the others, Pure Paradise is in thee too! For those of us that don't live near test stores or make orders, this is news for us. I've been reading Cia for a while and I saw these originally through her. I saw some of the other new labels and it's pretty, nice little overhaul.

Speaking of the new packaging. When I first saw the pictures, I thought, oh, those look tiny! They definitely look their weight in oz. in person. The shape takes some getting used to, but the stackable factor that Cia mentioned to me before was tested and true and I was a happy camper upon playing with them in store. The bottles themselves feel a little odd though, the material itself I ought to say. It feels, almost flimsier? I don't know if that's the word that I'm looking for.  Ever get an hourglass bottle with a spot that feels so thin it might break? It reminds me of that. Sadly.

As you are well aware, the prices are in fact going up. Amber Blush rings in at $12.50 for the lotion and shower gel. The TMC and FFM appear to be the same, and Body Butters don't appear to have changed either, despite the label changing. These new bottles will be launching next month to coincide with the use of these bouncebacks. I do speculate that prices will however change. 

In the past, we were not able to use these spend $10 get a free item for anything other than lotion, shower gel or bubble bath as it capped at $12. Some stores reportedly let this slide for TMCs but with the new wording, we are able to get TMCs. For how long? I don't think very long. Amber Blush's TMC does ring in at $12.50 same as the others but I forsee a price change coming soon. Probably about a dollar. I won't be surprised if we once again see that blasted $.50 margin that prevents the procurement of a TMC with coupons. So my guess, and this is just a guess, is that the TMC will go up to $13.50 eventually. Probably with the launch of the new look storewide. 

I don't think the FFM, Body Butters, or anything else will change pricewise but the labels are getting new artwork. 

Now, with these new bottles comes reformulation according to the advertising. How does it compare? Well, I didn't buy the regular lotion as I am largely a TMC girl unless the scent is lovable and there's not a TMC available, but I did get a shower gel and used this morning. Here's my thoughts: The scent is lovely, (I'll get into that part later), it doesn't last out of the shower well, per B&BW SG standard, but I noticed the lather isn't as nice either. It's different and probably not in a good way. I noticed the lather seemed extremely watered down. It does rinse out of a loofah better than the others, but it doesn't feel as creamy if you will, as they probably intended. I thought the idea of adding more shea was to make for a creamier wash but I feel it's done the opposite. 

It does leave my skin nice and soft just the same, maybe a touch more but we'll see how it holds up for other scents. After all, maybe this experience was exclusive to Amber Blush.

While I'm on about it, the scent of Amber Blush is really nice. It's a very sweet, fruity scent drenched in musk. It's sort of an odd combination but I find that I quite love it. As I said, take Sugar Berry Smash and add a dash of maturity and a lot of musk and this is what you get. I've heard comparisons to Cashmere Glow and Twilight Woods but I don't like either of these on bottle smell so I've never bothered to try them and can't give an accurate comparison. In the bottle, I don't notice much of a similarity. I can say it has a Forever Red feel to it, but much sweeter. I like it for now, we'll see how it withstands the test of me wearing it nonstop for a week.

Lastly, as I mentioned last night, the 2/22 is on right now and should be thru Monday at least. I'm pretty much stocked up on candles as I went nuts last candle sale. Happy shopping.

Spotlight on Coconut Lime Verbena

Perfect candle for a holiday right? I took a week of work just because, plus my birthday's Saturday so I just need some me time and I'll be going somewhere (undecided yet) midweek. 

This was my little treat to me today, good way to kick off right?

So onto the candle ...

Lovely, light and fragrant citrus with a hint of coconut. A very clean and sheer smell. Relaxing. It's lovely! The throw isn't spectacular so in my opinion, it works well in a smaller area. It burns quite well though and made for quite a relaxing day if I say so myself. I picked this beauty up when I exchanged the Pure Paradise stuff since I had extra store credit and I gotta say that I am disappointed in myself for only getting one.

Dat wax pool. 

Even the wax is really pretty. Both the pool and the colour. Normally I find summer scents to be a bit overdone and repetitive. I noticed a coconut explosion this year at B&BW (I don't know if that's a normal thing or not.) and while it can get tiresome, this candle seems to stand out to me. I don't know how long ago it came out though I'd guess a few years. Glad to see that it's still around and honestly, it's making me wish I would've gotten into B&BW when this scent was still in body care too! Great stuff!