I’ve been lusting after Bath and Bodyworks products ever since they first started popping up in people’s blogs, Instagram
feeds and YouTube videos, but had always resigned myself to the fact I would
never get my hands on them. They don’t have a store in the UK and their website
doesn’t ship to the UK either, so I just had to make myself feel better by
buying other smellies from UK stores. However, one day I was watching a video
from the lovely Charlotte Louise Taylor (if you don’t already, you should go and watch her videos!) and she was talking
about buying some Bath and Bodyworks bits from a Facebook group she had found.
I’m always a bit wary of Facebook selling groups, but Charlotte had said she’d
had positive experiences with it so far, so I decided to join Bath and Bodyworks Fans UK.
Since joining, I’ve ordered off a few different people
and have never had a bad experience (obviously it’s down to individual sellers,
but so far they’ve all been really good). So I thought I would show you the
autumn and winter candles I’ve received. My first little haul was these three
autumn three-wick candles. It’s a bit difficult because you can’t smell
anything, so I had to decide based on the descriptions on the website (which
are actually pretty detailed and helpful) and other people’s recommendations,
but the group were really helpful in helping me work out what I might like.
The first candle I went for was Marshmallow Fireside,
which is made with notes of toasted marshmallow, smoldering woods, fire-roasted
vanilla and crystallized amber. I assumed it would have quite a sweet scent,
but actually it’s very subtle. You can definitely smell the sweetness of the
marshmallow and vanilla, but the woody/fire scent really pairs this down. To
me, it really does smell like sitting round a campfire toasting marshmallows.
The next autumn candle I chose was Pumpkin Apple and it has notes of red delicious apple, fall pumpkin, fresh ground cinnamon
and clove buds. I wanted something fruity and fresh, and that’s exactly what I
got with this candle. I was a little bit worried about it having cinnamon in it
because I’m not really a fan of that scent, but thankfully it isn’t too
overpowering at all. You can definitely smell the fruitiness of the apple and
pumpkin, but it also smells very homely and cosy, thanks to the cinnamon and
clove. This is definitely a good one for autumn.
For my last autumn candle, I knew I had to get Leaves,
the one everyone raves about! It’s kind of hard to imagine what leaves might
smell like – we have woodland behind our house and you either get that crisp
autumn air scent or, when the leaves go soggy, that slightly rotting damp
smell! But this candle definitely reminds me more of the first one, with notes
of crisp red apple, golden nectar and warm clove spice. I’ve been burning this
one a lot, and the scent pretty much ends up filling the whole house. It’s
another very cosy scent and for me, the clove is definitely the strongest
smell.
One of the things that particularly attracted me to
the three-wick candles was the gorgeous lid you get on them. The autumn ones
had either a gold leaf or a copper pumpkin and just make the candles look so
pretty. I think I watched one of Zoella’s videos a year or so ago, and she said
that she uses the lids as coasters once the candle is finished, which I think
is a brilliant idea.
Fast forward a month, and the Christmas candles were
starting to make an appearance on the group. There were so many amazing scents
and I found it so hard to choose just three. I had a long list on my phone,
which I kept looking at, trying to reduce it (but actually just ended up adding
to it!) Thankfully, I chatted to a few people on the Facebook group, and they
helped me whittle down the scents they thought I might enjoy.
The first candle I picked was Champagne Toast. It’s
kind of difficult to know what to expect from a candle with this name, as
champagne doesn’t really have a particularly strong aroma! But this actually
turned out to be one of my favourites, with notes of bubbly champagne,
sparkling berries and juicy tangerine. It smells so good! There’s the sweetness
of the berries and the slight tang from the tangerine. I’m pretty sure you can
even smell the champagne bubbles, which I thought would be impossible.
My next pick was Frosted Cranberry,
which just sounded like it should be really Christmassy. I love fruity scents,
but wanted to find one that definitely reminded me of Christmas, and this one
fit the bill. It has notes of iced cranberries and orange essential oil, giving
it a really fresh and crisp scent, perfect for this time of year. It’s not too
sweet either, despite it being fruity, which makes quite a nice change to the
sweet candles I usually buy.
The last Christmas candle I ordered was Blueberry
Sugar (yep, another fruity one!) This one has notes of sweet blueberries, brown
sugar and Graham Cracker Crust – it actually smells like a Christmas bakery!
Compared to the crispness of the Frosted Cranberry, this one is a lot more
sweet and cosy, as you get the baking smell of the sugar and crackers. I didn’t
think blueberries could smell that Christmassy, but somehow they’ve managed it
with this candle.
Just like the autumn candles, these Christmassy ones
also have the patterned lids. Blueberry Sugar and Champagne Toast both have
silver lids with a snowflake (which actually reflects onto my ceiling – very pretty!)
and Frosted Cranberry has a copper lid with Christmas trees on it. Again, I
will be keeping these to use as coasters after I’ve burnt the candles.
There’s no denying that these candles aren’t
particularly cheap (I would say they are mid-range, much like Yankee Candles)
but the three-wick ones that I bought are huge! They have a good throw and you
can smell them even when they’re not lit, which I think is really nice. And
when you do light them, my whole family soon knows about it, as the scent
travels through the house. Yes, buying through a Facebook group isn’t exactly
ideal (and I’m still keeping everything crossed that Bath and Bodyworks might
finally decide to come to the UK one day soon!) but so far I’ve only had good
experiences buying through the group and am so happy to finally have got my
hands on a few candles.
Are you a Bath and Bodyworks fan? What’s your
favourite scent? Will you be checking out the Facebook group after reading my
post?
