A coworker saw me with a bag from Bath & Body Works the other day, where I had traveled to obtain some nice smelling antibacterial hand soaps and gels in an effort to stock up my office before all the students return to campus. Because he knows I am a perfumista who has spent (what he considers to be) an embarrassing large amount of money on perfume, he expressed surprised, and said, “So do you only do, like, nice fragrances, or will you do anything?”
This, my fine fragrance loving friends, is the problem with being a perfumista. You tell people you love perfume, collect perfume, write about perfume, and suddenly they assume that there is a price basement for what you can enjoy. While it is true that good research and development costs money, which usually pegs good juice at a higher price tag, a true perfumista recognizes that good, delicious, and delightful scents can come in any form, at any price, in any packaging.
So, in an effort to offer up a full week of economically accessible fragrances, I’m filling out today with some scent offerings from Bath & Body Works. Bath & Body Works has a line of “fragrant waters,” lighter summer versions of their Signature Collection EDTs. You can purchase these lighter scents in monstrous 295ml bottles or smaller, travel-sized scents in a 8.5ml roll-on container. Right now, either size is buy two get a third free, so I thought it might be a nice to give their summer line a try. Here’s my take on three of their “fragrant waters.”
Bath & Body Works Sweetpea
Sweetpea is intended for those looking for a “brighter, summer-inspired interpretation” of the EDT. To do so, “master perfumers have added touches of lemon zest, fresh tangerine, a hint of Granny Smith Apple, and soft, sheer petals.” Thus, Sweetpea is an “intoxicating, floral-infused breezes of the Mediterranean, master perfumers have blended sweet pea petals and watery pear with freesia, fresh raspberry, and soft, delicate musk.” The notes include “lemon zest, fresh tangerine, Granny Smith apples, sweet pea petals.” On me, Sweetpea is a strange mix of very light grape and watermelon flavored jello. I’m not kidding. Sweetpea was like wearing the smell of every sick day I spent at my grandmother’s house. J-E-L-L-O. All the way. Not an unpleasant smell, but one that seems most appropriate for very young girls.
Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom
Japanese Cherry Blossom, in the fragrant waters version, is again a "brighter, summer-inspired version" of the EdT, in which “master perfumers enhanced the airy floralcy for a fragrance that's illuminated from the back, for a fresher effect.” According to B&BWs, this thing has a more notes than you can shake a stick at: Asian pear, Fuji apple, mandarin zest, crushed leaves, sparkling casis, fresh lychee, Japanese cheer blossoms, jasmine petals, fresh peony, water lily, vanilla rice, violet woods, skin musk, creamy sandalwood.” If anyone can prove to me that they can smell all of those things going on simultaneously in this concoction, I’ll buy them a bottle of the classic perfume of their choice. In Japanese Cherry Blossom, I get a sweet, bitter, little green synthetic at the opening melded with cassis and hints of vanilla. While I think Japanese Cherry Blossom is pleasant, I suspect I would enjoy it more as a hand soap, because it seems like a lovely scent, but perhaps better suited to lotions or cleaners.
Bath & Body Works Wild Honeysuckle
Again, going for a lighter, summer version of one of their staple EDTs, B&BW “master perfumers” have taken Wild Honeysuckle and “highlighted the floral heart of the fragrance with sparkling notes of tangerine, Sicilian lemon, vibrant mandarin and pink grapefruit.” The notes are listed as “jasmine, violet, fresh honeydew, cassis,” a much more manageable list than Japanese Cherry Blossom.
Of the three I tried, this was by far my favorite. Wild Honeysuckle smelled to me like dry desert air just as it begins to rain. It had this gritty feel to it, while still being sweet, like a handful of wet sand and a handful of wild flowers, all crushed together. If you can smell the blue grey color of sky before a storm or the exposed and worn slate veins of the Pennsylvania hills, then this is pretty close to it. In my head, it reminds me of the way Helena Christensen looks in Chris Isaak’s video for Wicked Game. There is one shot of her, covered in dirt and sand, with her startling blue eyes peering doe-eyed at the camera. When I smell Wild Honeysuckle, that is the image I see in my mind.
Strange, what desire will make foolish people do.
I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you.
I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you.
No, I don't wanna fall in love…with you.
- “Wicked Game,” Chris Isaak
For more affordable scent reviews, see this post from Divina, and Angela’s five part series from Now Smell this found here: part 1, Victoria Secret scents, part 2, Bath & Body Works scents, part 3, Body Shop scents, part 4, L’Occitane scents, part 5, Gap Close.
If you want to give these economically accessible fragrances a go, go on over to Bath & Body Works and buy a few of the smaller containers. They provide a fun way to experiment with what it feels like to chose a different scent every day based on your schedule and mood.
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