B&BW Coconut Lime Breeze

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After buying some candles at Bath and Body Works, I found that I had a choice of a free item. So I wandered about the store and picked up the Coconut Lime Breeze fragrance and gave it a sniff. Its similarity to Coconut Lime Verbena is probably not a coincidence, but the two aren’t exactly alike.

Coconut Lime Breeze

Coconut Lime Breeze

In Bottle: Sharp citrus scent with an equally heavy layer of coconut.

Applied: Pretty much the same impression I got in the bottle. There’s a stronger citrus element in Coconut Lime Breeze than compared to Coconut Lime Verbena. The fragrance opens with a rather strong blast of lime followed by a bergamot and citrus zest scent. It digs more into its coconut notes in the mid-stage where I get the occasional waft of florals and vanilla. The stars of this scent, though are quite obviously the coconut and the lime, with a little more emphasis on the lime. That is how the scent starts and that is how the scent ends–with the classic blending of coconut and lime. Now, I love coconut anyway, and clean coconut tends to behave a bit better to my nose because the clean or sharp element helps mask the often synthetic smell. There is a harshness to this fragrance though. It’s not a game-breaking harshness like the overuse of cedar in some perfumes. The harshness here has to do with the lime being a bit aggressive and astringent. There’s not much in the way of progression as you will start with a sharp lime and coconut scent and end with a softer lime and coconut scent. It’s a good combination, there’s a reason why musicians have lyrics to the combination of coconut and lime and it’s because they work well together.

Extra: Coconut Lime Breeze–much like many of Bath and Body Works’ many other successful fragrances was released to replace the discontinued Coconut Lime Verbena. Again, there are some differences between the two. Coconut Lime Verbena focused a bit more on the coconut note and was overall a softer fragrance. Coconut Lime Breeze has a sharper, stronger citrus note and is a bit more noticeable at first. At least, that’s how it is to me.

Design: I was delighted to see Bath and Body Works had changed their body spray packaging from the somewhat boring curvy bottle to be more similar to Victoria’s Secret’s Beauty Rush bottles. We now get a straight cylinder with a metallic cap and a unique design wrapped around the packaging. The bottles feel heavier, feel smoother and generally looks much more professional. Nicely done, Bath and Body Works.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Tangerine, lemon, neroli, lime, bergamot, melon, muget, pineapple, jasmine, lime blossom, coconut, sandalwood, vanilla.

I like the stronger citrus in this than Coconut Lime Verbena. In terms of similarity, the two are alike enough to satisfy people looking for a citrus and coconut combination. But if you were looking for the exact same fragrance, you may have to look up stray bottles of Coconut Lime Verbena, as there is a noticeable difference between these two. And if you were looking for a more subdued interpretation of coconut and lime and have money burning a hole in your wallet then Creed’s Virgin Island Water is still one of the best coconut-based fragrances I’ve smelled so far.

Reviewed in This Post: Coconut Lime Breeze, 2012, Body Mist.

Bath and Body Works Orange Sapphire

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I had smelled Orange Sapphire a few months ago and thought it would be a part of Bath and Body Work’s regular collection. When I went back recently to freshen my memory of this scent, I found that it had been discontinued. That’s the thing with Bath and Body Works, they come out with some nice, wearable, easy fragrances that smell all right. Then when you go back looking for it again, it’s been discontinued. Talk about frustrating.

Orange Sapphire

Orange Sapphire

In Bottle: Clean, sweet citrus that reminds me immediately of summer and the tropics. Nicely done citrus-based fragrance that’s more interesting than White Citrus. Orange Sapphire is like White Citrus if the latter would loosen its shirt collar a little bit.

Applied: It’s like a sweet citrus party upon application as all the citrus notes flood up top and vie over each other for dominance. There’s definitely a distinct sweet mandarin scent amongst the various citruses. As the fragrance wears on, it gets a bit more floral and a lot more generic. Orange Sapphire’s citrus notes try to hold on in the midstage but the fragrance develops into a floral near the end of its midstage and when Orange Sapphire hits the endstage, it still smells like a sweet floral generic fragrance, the base notes don’t add much to the fragrance, as is usually the case.

Extra: Orange Sapphire was discontinued sometime in 2011. The last time I saw this on the shelves at a Bath and Body Works store was in 2010. You can still buy this on eBay and Amazon from third party vendors. But given the history of BnBW discontinuing scents then bringing them back under different names, I wouldn’t be surprised if Orange Sapphire resurfaced with a different name.

Design: All Bath and Body Works perfumes are pretty much designed the same way. I suppose the uniform design approach works for them. I mean, the design itself is easy enough to like and easy enough to rebrand for other fragrances. Orange Sapphire, appropriately enough, features an orange glass bottle with some sapphire blue elements on the design.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blood orange, orange, grapefruit, bergamot, mandarin, cassis, raspberry, peach, jasmine, orange flower, freesia, lily of the valley, magnolia, orchid, vetiver, musk, patchouli.

It’s too bad this was discontinued because I think it did fill a niche in that it’s more playful than White Citrus but is still refreshing without being a full out gourmand. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought this back at some point.

Reviewed in This Post: Orange Sapphire, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

BnBW Paris Amour

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Another new-ish release from Bath and Body Works, Paris Amour is supposed to be a sophisticated, romantic fruity floral scent. I already have my doubts.

Paris Amour

Paris Amour

In Bottle: Very fruity, the strawberry is really present along with this peach and apple combination. Everything is also very sweet.

Applied: Strawberry all up in my face. There’s the apple blossom kind of waffling about with the peach note as the big fruity opening starts drying off in the mid-stage where the floral notes start to come up. We got a little bit of something green but there is a lot of frangipani to my nose and an equal amount of cleaned up lotus mixed with a tiny hint of cleaned up jasmine. The dry down is not too much more interesting as the floral midstage gives way to a vanilla sandalwood scent that’s been bathed in white musk.

Extra: Paris Amour, like pretty much all other Bath and Body Works fragrances comes in a variety of different products. You can get a lotion, body mist, body cream, shower gel. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a candle version of this scent.

Design: Designed in much the same way as other Bath and Body Works fragrances. Essentially, you’ve got a square bottle with some cute pastel colors and the Eiffel Tower. Nothing too exciting though the design of this particular fragrance is a little unbalanced with the tower standing out a little too much in my opinion.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, strawberry, cassis, freesia, apple blossom, peach, jasmine, lotus, frangipani, tulip, musk, sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coconut.

Paris Amour is pretty generic for what it is. I don’t know, Bath and Body Works seems to have one hit fragrance and that was Japanese Cherry Blossom. Everything else is kind of like this, “It smells all right” kind of affair with no real sense of the dramatic or the unique. As for whether or not Paris Amour is the sophisticated and romantic scent it was toted as being–eh, not really. This makes me think, “fun”, “girly”, “happy”. Romance and sophistication don’t come into the picture.

Reviewed in This Post: Paris Amour, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Bath and Body Works Cotton Blossom

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I was surprised to find how many people wanted to smell like laundry. Can you really blame them? Laundry scents are among some of the most finely tailored fragrances out there. While perfumes are an artistic canvas where the lives of the abstract smells dwell, laundry detergent and other household cleaning or hygiene products is the world of the wildly successful but ultimately uniform. And then there’s Cotton Blossom.

Cotton Blossom

In Bottle: Sharp and floral. This smells so benign. And benign in this case is a compliment because what else is Cotton Blossom really trying to achieve but that ultimate laundry smell?

Applied: Goes on sharp and clean. Clean in all caps even as Cotton Blossom wastes no time at all telling you what it’s going to be about. And what it’s about is laundry and soap. This smells like any number of laundry smells you may have enjoyed. It’s slightly flowery, it’s powdery, it’s huge on the soap, it’s sharp and clean white musk and it’ll make you feel fresh and neat and there’s nothing else to it. The opening stage is a bit sharp and this stuff goes on strong. It mellows out a bit in the mid-stage where the sharpness is rounded out a little and the powder becomes more noticeable. Cotton Blossom, strangely enough, smells a bit watery on me in the dry down but maintains its powdery floral personality. Experiencing this was like smelling laundry detergent, pouring it into the machine, then turning it on. Sharp initial blast, mellowed pour, mixed with water. Kudos to Bath and Body Works for this one. If you want to smell like laundry, Cotton Blossom’s your gal.

Extra: For what it is, Cotton Blossom has surprisingly awesome longevity. So while this doesn’t come in eau de toilette or eau de parfum, I don’t think this fragrance needs to be any more potent.

Design: Cotton Blossom is presently available in a body mist form in Bath and Body Works’ older design. So you don’t get anything special. Just a tall bottle that’s entirely plastic with a semi-transparent label bearing the fragrance’s name and theme. The best thing about the body mist at Bath and Body Works is you get a ton of fragrance for very little money. There’s 236ml in a full size.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Sun dried linen accord, grass, mandarin blossom, jeans accord, peony, cotton, musk, baby powder.

I will never be able to take that notes list seriously. Never. I love how playful the list is though. Anyway, Demeter also has a fragrance that’s supposed to smell like laundry in Laundromat. I vastly prefer Cotton Blossom as it lasts longer and is far cheaper.

Reviewed in This Post: Cotton Blossom, 2010, Body Mist.

Bath and Body Works Carried Away

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Carried away, released recently by Bath and Body Works is a fragrance meant to invoke springtime. And considering the snow dumps and the cold air that’s been blowing about here lately, I welcome spring’s arrival any moment now.

Carried Away

In Bottle: Bright, green citrus with a soft floral undernote. Not entirely interesting but doesn’t smell bad. This is fairly on bar with other Bath and Body Works fragrances. It’s not unique, it’s not daring, but it’s definitely functional.

Applied: I get a sharp hit of citrus right away with the lemon and mandarin mixing together up front. There’s a slight tartness from the raspberry note that carries the sweet little pear note a little further and when you start digging into the mid-stage, the sweet and light florals waft in to distract you while the citrus note sin the opening bow out. There’s nothing to phone home about in the mid-stage as it’s a mild floral, easy to wear, easy to like, not the least bit offensive. Though I will give Carried Away points for taking its springtime theme and running with it. This smells fresh, clean, femininely floral. The dry down is uninspired, the vanilla is sweet, comes up during the mid-stage and accompanies sandalwood on the way out.

Extra: Carried Away, like almost every other Bath and Body Works scent comes in a line of bath and body products such as body mists, lotion, body butter, and shower gel.

Design: Same shape and general design premise as the other eau de toilettes from Bath and Body Works. Glass rectangle with designs on it. Plastic cap. The designs for Carried Away are colorful turquoise and pink ribbons wrapping around the glass. Pretty, generic, but works very well.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Bergamot, meyer lemon, mandarin, pear, raspberry, freesia, tuberose, jasmine, violet, sandalwood, vanilla, musk.

I’m not jumping on this fragrance mostly because I’ve smelled similar stuff that I like better from Bath and Body Works. For freshness, I go with White Citrus. For florals, I prefer the roses in P.S. I Love You. And if I want clean, I’ve got Cotton Blossom.

Reviewed in This Post: Carried Away, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

BnBW P.S. I Love You

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P.S. I Love You was released in 2009 from Bath and Body Works. A time when I had just gotten my first Bath and Body Works lotion after hearing about them for years. I was all right with the lotion but I was more curious about the perfume they were introducing in their promotional postcard. Turns out, it’s a competent rose.

P.S. I Love You

In Bottle: Bright and pretty, I smell citrus more than I smell florals but the roses are in there, mingling about with a slightly sweet thickness to it that gives P.S. I Love You surprising body.

Applied: Citrus to start that launches into a mild sweetness with a waft of peony before it evolves rather quickly into its rose stage. In the mid-stage is there P.S. I Love You  shines. The roses come up, light and airy at first before they get deeper and turn into a surprisingly lovable smooth and spicy, utterly feminine, rose scent. Make no mistake, P.S. I Love You will deliver perfume’s most beloved flower with a dash of lightly dusted peonies and a hint of sharp musk. Near the end of the mid-stage I get an interesting amber note, it gives this scent a pleasant warming quality. This is a surprisingly well done rose that took me by surprise. It’s young, definitely, but it’s very likable. The dry down is marked with a rather predictable sandalwood accompanied by a bit more fleeting rose and full-bodied  sweet amber to warm the fragrance.

Extra: Something interesting to note is the perfumer of P.S. I Love You who is known for composing fragrances for Ralph Lauren, Bond No.9 and Tom Ford.

Design: P.S. I Love You comes in a couple of concentrations–eau de toilette and eau de parfum. I was testing the eau de parfum version that comes in a cute little bottle that you see pictured above. Unfortunately, the eau de parfum was a limited edition item (as far as I understand it) and is no longer available. Bath and Body Works still carries P.S. I Love You in the eau de toilette version which looks pretty much like every other Bath and Body Works perfume bottle. Both designs are rather tasteful though I vastly preferred the eau de parfum design.  P.S. I Love You’s design reminds me of brush strokes, love letters and flower petals.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, lychee, peony, yellow rose, riesling, scarlet velvet rose, orchid, lilies, jasmine, incense, creamy sandalwood, patchouli, amber, and musk.

I know a lot of people are afraid of rose. I find rose beautiful but many are understandably wary of it. It is often associated with “old fashioned perfume” but P.S. I Love You is a very youthful an interpretation and  there are still people who find it difficult to love. Though the majority of people who try it, still like it well enough.

Reviewed in This Post: P.S. I Love You, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Bath and Body Works Twisted Peppermint

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With Christmas coming up, I thought it would be nice to visit an old favorite of mine and a favorite of a lot of other people too. Bath and Body Works’ Twisted Peppermint is a seasonal offer that smells just like its name; peppermint candies. Twisted Peppermint

In Bottle: Strong sweet, sugary peppermint candy. There’s not a whole lot to say about Twisted Peppermint that you can’t get from immediately smelling the fragrance. It’s strong, it’s festive, it’s sweet, it’s just plain fun.

Applied: Twisted Peppermint goes on with a big blast of peppermint followed by the sweetening sugar that layers on top of the fragrance, sitting in place until the vanilla comes in seconds later. There is no progression to this fragrance and very little in the way of complexity. As stated, it’s just plain, easy, simple fun. The peppermint in this lends a nice cooling, tingling effect to add some extra zing to the fragrance. This makes a great cooling spray for summer but you might be a little out of season wearing this stuff in July. It really does smell like peppermint candy and candy canes. The vanilla is the typical synthetic kind, but it’s easy to ignore that when you first spray it on. It will become apparent that this stuff isn’t composed of the highest quality materials as the scent ages, taking on that “something is off” smell that you get with synthetic scents sometimes. I find the synthetic smell distracting during the fragrance’s final stages and find it near impossible to tolerate in the lotion. In the perfume, it is easier to ignore. This stuff does not have a whole lot of lasting power as it will fade on you within a couple of hours. But for a couple of hours you can at least smell like a festive candy cane.

Extra: Twisted Peppermint comes in a variety of products. My favorites include the lotion and 3-in-1 shampoo, body wash, and bubble bath. These two, plus the body mist, have that same peppermint oil tingling effect that I really like.

Design: Twisted Peppermint has gone through a few makeovers as far as I can tell. Its current incarnation is as a plastic globe containing a shimmer mist. The sprayer nozzle is a little wonky as it is made out of plastic and it is trying to disperse sparkles as well as scent. I sometimes have to wipe the nozzle opening to clean the sparkles off or the sprayer will dribble product instead of spray it. I have an old bottle that lacks the sparkly business whose sprayer nozzle works much better.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Peppermint, sugar, vanilla.

If you’re looking for a fragrance that’s candy-like and will remind you of the holidays, then this stuff should be right up your alley. I think it’s kind of cute that Twisted Peppermint’s tagline on the bottle is, “Mint with an attitude”. There’s no attitude to this. It’s just a peppermint candy. A sweet, delicious peppermint candy scent that’s done rather well.

Reviewed in This Post: Twisted Peppermint, 2009, Body Mist.

Bath and Body Works White Citrus

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What can I really say about White Citrus that hasn’t already been said? White Citrus is one of Bath and Body Works’ more simple compositions that’s billed as a modern take on a classic citrus fragrance. Not sure what they mean about a modern take on a classic citrus as this just pretty much smells like a citrus perfume. Nothing classic about it. But it is very good.  White Citrus

In Bottle: Sharp citrus, tangy lemon zest and a bit of sweet tangerine. There isn’t a lot of sweetness in this but there’s a tiny amount that helps to balance out the tartness a little bit.

Applied: Big white florals and citrus fragrance. Heavy emphasis on the citrus. I mostly get the lemon zest out of this fragrance which is tempered a bit by the lily and freesia present in the fragrance. The freesia helps calms the tartness of this scent a little with its floral sweetness as White Citrus lays on the skin like a clean, sheer coating of freshness. This is a nice, competent citrus-based scent with a good level of initial projection. However, due to its citrus-heavy top notes, the fragrance doesn’t last very long or project very far on me so I end up having to layer, layer, layer. White Citrus remains predominantly floral and lemon until it calms down near the end by introducing a barely noticeable and very sheer woody scent on the exit.

Extra: White Citrus is also available in a white variety of other products from Bath and Body Works. This includes lotions, body mists, travel size items, hand soap and probably much more. So if you’re worrying about the scent fading fast, get the lotion, the shower gel, and start layering. For those of you interested in this fragrance and want something that lasts a bit longer, Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ Whitechapel is a citrus-heavy perfume oil that has a few familiar components to White Citrus.

Design: White Citrus is bottled in much the same way as other Bath and Body Works eau de toilette fragrances. A no nonsense rectangular glass bottle with a design printed on the front. In White Citrus’ case, the design on the front appears to be some sort of explosion of green, or a graphical representation of a halved green citrus fruit.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Lemon zest, tangerine, grapefruit, mandarin, lily of the valley, apricot, freesia, waterlily, ginger flower, woods, musk.

I had a small bottle of White Citrus lotion and quickly grew tired of it. A nice clean and fresh fragrance is good for an average day but White Citrus wasn’t as pleasing a citrus-based fragrance as I had hoped.

Reviewed in This Post: White Citrus, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom

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Japanese Cherry Blossom, to me, holds the prestigious title of most wearable powdery oriental floral. It’s a very well-made and well-loved clean, powder floral fragrance that almost anyone can pull off. It’s extremely versatile which makes it a fantastic work or school fragrance. Japanese Cherry Blossom

In Bottle: Powdery white floral with an airy quality that gives of a clean aroma with a slight dewy fruity note hovering beneath the floating powdered flowers.

Applied: Clean burst of florals and dewy fruits. The fruits are not at all heavy and are very quick to burn off. What’s left is a lovely, light powdered and clean floral fragrance that’s smooth and surprisingly complex. Japanese Cherry Blossom is the floral for people who don’t like florals. It’s got enough flowers in it to please those who enjoy flowers and it goes on light enough to be all right for those who  hate flowers. This fragrance is like a big soft bag of cherry blossom petals. Your dry down ushers in a bit of muskiness and amber to it as the fragrance transitions to a very well thought out base of floral sandalwood.

Extra: Over the years the Japanese Cherry Blossom scent has spawned a huge line of bath and body products including perfumes, body mists, shower gels, dry oil sprays, lotions, candles, and so on.

Design: Japanese Cherry Blossom’s bottle is the same shape as other Bath and Body Works eau de toilette bottles. It has black and white cherry blossom designs on the glass. Bath and Body Works tends to redesign their product lines once every few years so the bottle you’re looking at now may not look the same three or four years down the road.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Floral

Notes: Asian pear, fuji apple, ume plum, japanese cherry blossom, butterfly lily, Kyoto rose, mimosa, hedione, vanilla rice, amber, silk musk, cinnamon incense, Himalayan cedarwood, sandalwood.

I’ll give it to Japanese Cherry Blossom to be an oriental. But it’s not rich and deep and heady like what you would normally associate with an oriental. It’s a very cleaned up, very light version.

Reviewed in This Post: Japanese Cherry Blossom, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar

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Warm Vanilla Sugar is one of the lead selling fragrances from Bath & Body Works. This, along with Japanese Cherry Blossom, aretwo of the most predominant fragrances I smell on younger women. It’s easy to wear, it’s affordable and it’s a pleasant enough foody vanilla fragrance. Warm Vanilla Sugar

In Bottle: Someone loaded this up with a mountain of sugar and vanilla because that is all I can smell. It’s a big dollop of that, now very familiar to me, faux vanilla scent.

Applied: Extremely sweet, almost cloyingly so, upon application as the very delicate floral notes in this evaporate almost immediately. What I get with the rest of the scent is a hugely predominant sweet vanilla that just won’t quit. If you have smelled a vanilla based fragrance, you’ll have smelled the vanilla in Warm Vanilla Sugar. It is the same sweet, foody, vanilla that you’ve likely experienced before. It’s reminiscent of a lot of vanilla based scents that I can recognize in Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab vanillas and Comptoir sud Pacifique vanillas. It’s the same vanillas that tend to have that slightly plastic feel to it. Warm Vanilla Sugar, nevertheless, is a great little gourmand with a nice tasty edge to it. Like you’re drinking vanilla milk and smelling a puffy vanilla pastry. This is yummy smelling stuff and let’s face it, you don’t wear Warm Vanilla Sugar to get several layers of complexity in the ingredients. This goes on smelling like vanilla milk, it arrives mid-stage with vanilla milk, and it’ll dry down with vanilla milk and a bit of clean dry musk to keep things a little interesting.

Extra: This stuff smells great on the right person so don’t take my aversion to it the wrong way. It’s a really great baked vanilla goods fragrance to it and is one of the nicest, most pleasant and versatile gourmands I’ve smelled.

Design: Warm Vanilla Sugar is bottled in a similar way as other Bath and Body Works eau de toilettes. A nice, classic looking glass bottle with the fragrance’s name on the glass and a plastic cap to protect the sprayer. Nothing too fancy. It just plain old works.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Florals, vanilla absolute, basmati rice, coconut, heliotrope, musk, veltol, sandalwood.

You might be wondering to yourself what in the world ‘veltol’ is. It’s a food additive meant to give things a freshly baked scent. So in this case, if you think you’re smelling a vanilla pastry, that’s the vanilla absolute mixed with the veltol talking.

Reviewed in This Post: Warm Vanilla Sugar, 2010, Eau de Toilette.