B&BW Vanilla Bean Noel

The time is upon us where the Holiday Traditions line at B&BW is available once again. When it comes to body care, this is my favorite line at B&BW. Every other line or scent they have, especially the signature collection, is way too strong and overpowering. The holiday traditions line is creamy and lightly scented. I stock up when it's available because it is only in stores and online during the holidays. The scents and products available along with the packaging change every year slightly. This year they have the returning favorites vanilla bean noel, winter candy apple (my sister's favorite), and twisted peppermint, and the new snow kissed berry.

My favorite scent in this line is Vanilla Bean Noel. Twisted Peppermint comes in a close second and I only use that scent in winter since the cool vanilla peppermint seems appropriate at that time. But VBN you can use all year round. My favorite product in this line is the body cream. Thick and creamy yet absorbed by the skin quickly. I do not like the lotion - I find it thin, not very moisturizing, yet greasy and sticky. The scent is yum yum yum. Vanilla, caramel, cream. Sometimes it has a cotton candy scent but it is not strong or overly sweet. Trust me on that. Bathandbodyworks.com says "Our exclusive Vanilla Bean Noel is a warm blend of fresh vanilla bean, warm caramel and rich, comforting cream." This year, the body mist is better than last year. It smells like alcohol in the bottle but you can smell the scent when you spray it on. It just doesn't last very long. They also came out with it in a "HandiBac" this year which is my answer to wanting it in travel sizes. It's a travel size hand lotion that is also antibacterial.



They always have good deals on these products making it easy to stock up. I bought them when they were buy three get three free. That's a darn good deal. I'm not sure if that deal is still on or not. VBN comes in other products available now like lotion, shower gel, and pocket bac. I just reviewed my favorite products in the line. Check it out at their website or in stores.

{Currently Burning - Harvest by Yankee Candle}

Fresh Citron de Vigne

I had the pleasure of going into a Fresh store for the first time while I was visiting New York City a couple weeks ago. I. Loved. It. It's heaven for a scent lover like me. They have a ton of different scents and they come in different products (some more than others) - perfume, candles, soap, lotion, shower gel, etc. The associate there helped me since it was my first time there and she recommended 4 different products - 2 of which I bought. I bought their Sugar Rose Lip Treatment but it's the Citron de Vigne perfume I wanna talk about.

The website www.fresh.com has a blurb about this fragrance that you can go there to read since I can't copy and paste it. They describe it as "a crisp, sparkling scent inspired by France's champagne region." It looks like this is their most popular scent currently, or just the featured one and comes in a wide variety of products.

It's like a more sophisticated and upscale version of Bigelow's Lemon perfume. It's fresh and a little sweet with citrus/lemon notes and you can definitely smell the champagne as well. It's a young sophisticated scent. I say that because usually when a scent is described as "sophisticated" it smells like a strong old lady perfume but this is nowhere near that. I bought it in the medium 1 oz size to try it first and thought it was a good value. This bottle has more perfume than the rollerball but you can still carry it in your purse. This has a good staying power on me too and you only need 1 or 2 sprays.

If you haven't been to one of these stores, I recommend going if you can find one. I think they sell a limited number of products at beauty stores like Sephora but going into their store is a great experience. You can sample all their unique perfumes (there's something for everyone) and when I went, there were large jars (almost vats) of retired perfume scents they brought back and mixed themselves in the store. Exciting.

{Currently Burning - Leaves by Slatkin & Co.}

Yankee's October Scent

Autumn Leaves

"A vibrant medley of birch and maple leaves with pomegranate, juniper berry, and orange blossom." This scent swatch smells like pine to me. It must be the juniper berry. It's nice but it seems more of a winter scent than a fall one. Then I smelled it in the store and it smelled like Robitussin so I'm gonna pass on this one.

Bath & Body Works Holiday Preview

If you're a fragrance lover like me, then you might be itching for some holiday scents already. You need to go to http://www.bbwsneakpeek.com/. At this webpage, you can sign up to be notified of holiday items that aren't yet available and click links to view items available now. As for candles and home fragrance, Slatkin has returning favorites and also new holiday scents - a lot of new holiday scents. Dare I say, Slatkin and B&BW went overboard with new holiday scents this year? Of course not. You can NEVER have enough of these candles. Yankee had a email coupon come out today that was buy one get one free ALL large jars and I still went to B&BW and bought 2 Slatkin 3-wick candles at 2 for 20. Oh yeah, did I mention the 2 for $20 sale is on again??

This is getting me excited for Christmas.

{Currently Burning - Leaves by Slatkin & Co.}

Fall Picks 2010

It's my favorite time of year and the best time for fragrance, in my opinion. Here are my picks for fall candles this year:

Leaves by Slatkin & Co.



A must-have every autumn. They've had this scent for a couple years now and I think it's everyone's favorite at B&BW. My sister descibes this scent as a fall dessert. It's apple cider, cinnamon, and other spices like clove/nutmeg etc. Bathandbodyworks.com describes it as "Autumnal notes of golden nectar, juicy mandarin and red delicious apple are paired with toasted cinnamon stick, mulled cider spices and freshly harvested red berries."

Pumpkin Patch by Slatkin & Co.



This isn't a new scent; it's a returning favorite of mine. It used to be part of the collection called "The Perfect Autumn" like the collection during the holiday season called "The Perfect Christmas". This one was called The Perfect Autumn - Pumpkin then a couple years ago they changed the name to Pumpkin Patch. I think a pumpkin scent is a necessity during fall. You have to have an apple scent and a pumpkin scent. And my first two candles cover those bases. "Pumpkin Patch is an invitingly warm blend of fresh pumpkin, spicy cinnamon, creamy nutmeg, whipped butter, and rich brown sugar."

By the way, if you know Slatkin as well as I do you'll notice that the labels on these two candles are different and nicer - the pictures are larger and more artistic I guess you could say. This year it seems they made these new labels and the old ones. I've seen both in stores and they're the same price so you might not care about that but it's just an observation.

Caramel Apple by Slatkin & Co.




My fellow candle-obsessed friend doesn't like this one. I would say give it a chance. The first time I smelled it I didn't think I liked it either but now I love it because it stands out. You can smell both the caramel AND the apple. I think they blended the two perfectly. The more I smelled this one, the more I liked it. I might go back and get the oil for my Scentbug. This was a new scent for Slatkin this year, along with Creamy Pumpkin (too ordinary and P. Patch is the better pumpkin scent) and Autumn (which I'll review in the next post probably). It can smell a little like maple oatmeal at first but burn it and you might love it like me. "Golden apple, brown sugar and creamy caramel are blended with Anjou pear, nutmeg and vanilla cream to create this fall favorite."

Harvest by Yankee

A fall classic. I spent so much money on Slatkin this year, I haven't even bought this yet (hence no picture) but I probably still will. This combines all the great scents of fall into one candle - apple, cinnamon, pumpkin, etc. If you're only gonna get one fall candle, then it might as well be Harvest. This is probably my all time favorite Yankee scent. Yankeecandle.com says "A blend of cinnamon, cloves, and musk with a hint of sweet apples and pumpkin."

Honorable Mentions - Ginger Vanilla by Slatkin & Co. (They didn't make this scent this year but they were still selling some on QVC.com. I love and miss this scent.) and Cranberry Orange by Yankee (one of their new ones this year; "Fresh-baked muffins with tart cranberries, sweet orange zest and spicy cloves.")

{Currently Burning - Autumn by Slatkin & Co.}

Yankee's September Scent

Macintosh

"So vividly real you can almost taste the unmistakable crunch." I don't know about all that but this is a great apple scent - very true. It reminds me of Soergel's Orchards in the fall when they're making fresh apple cider and selling all sorts of fresh apples.

Great Labor Day Weekend Sale

All Slatkin 3 wick candles are 2 for $20 this weekend! Visit bathandbodyworks.com for more information. I already stocked up. This sale doesn't happen very often and it's the best deal they do on these candles (that are the best money can buy in my opinion.) So stock up or try new fall scents...and then some!

{Currently Burning- Slatkin & Co. Caramel Apple}