While going through my closet drawer organizer I came across these oldies, but goodies. Most of my best, oldest Bath and Body Works goodies have been finished up, and/or tossed out already so this is the next grouping to be gone through.
I know that Bath and Body Works offers a 100% Happiness Guarantee on all of their products. Some stores, not all, don't always like to comply happily with taking things back when you're not happy. Even only by having them for a few weeks, or months...forget about a year of having something. So you buy the item and don't really want to deal with the "whole return to exchange process" and it becomes a monument of fragrance disappointments in your closet drawer.
Where once I bought everything new to review...use and love, that thought only left me with excess products that sit and wait for their turn to move from the drawers to the shelf. And with numerous back ups of the favorites I had to have because they were really good and we all know that the good things don't always come back, all I see now... is wasted money.
Blogging about fragrance does not need to be wasteful when your spending your own money on getting all of the products you love anyway to talk about.
You don't end up with over 600 bottles of hand soap because you love to wash your hands excessively. But tossing in a pandemic with hardly a bottle of soap on the regular store shelves to buy...that over purchase kinda came in handy last year. I haven't counted the soaps lately, but they are next.
I have since stopped that practice of buying everything to talk about and have been de-stashing all of the extras...and tossing out those things that go bad way too quick.
Looking back at some of these items does make me smile - I remember every purchase. On my Facebook timeline this week the 2012 Paris collection of items (in the older bottle design) showed up and that took me way back...to a simpler time of great scents...and no one knew who this blogger girl was. I still have a few of those...too!
Here are some of the products I am going through this week:
Here's a question. Do you use specific Bath and Body Works fragrances for the specific time of the year? Or do you love what you love at any time regardless of the season?
I think that is part of why my collection was so huge. I got into the pattern of using their brand of fragrances for the time of year in which they came out. Which meant limiting the time something was being used, until the next, new thing came.
Now, I am I happy to spray on a holiday scent if that is what I am in the mood for in May. Before, I moved my collection of scents to the front of the cabinet according to the season.
Holiday anything is a huge draw for me. I gift a lot, so it always seemed fitting to stock up on those special time of year fragrances for myself, and gifts. With a love for a good gingerbread fragrance...ginger snap was a perfect choice. These little ball shaped fragrance mists still smell so delicious after all of this time!
I finished off the fourth bottle I had, but I don't go through this as quickly because it is a shimmer mist. I mean, how often do we shimmer? Tell me the truth, Should I be shimmering more? Ha ha.
That lotion, from the Temptations Collection - heaven.
Why, oh why, can we NOT get a Temptations Collection back again? I mean the real Temptations fragrances...and none of that like before, " oh here is the Tutti Dolce Collection" ...with none of the true fragrances from the older beloved collection in it. If you give us the True Temptations Collection...we will buy it all.
These little guys will be kept because that fragrance is still spot on. I guess I need to shimmer a bit more these days. And the 16 oz. 3-in-1 Body Wash/Bubble Bath/Shampoo will be added to the shower/sinks to finish up. There was also a Nutcracker Sweet scent, and I think a Licorice scent already finished.
More Temptations! The Twisted Peppermint from then seemed so much better than it is now. And Tropical Colada was favorite for sure. This is the last one I have and it is almost gone and still smells perfect. I think I will be getting rid of these now. I know there are those who save and archive older products and others still purchase old items on Ebay. Interesting - because I get it...the want to archive and to have. Photographing something will be enough to archive for me now.
Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin. This was my GO TO for fall for years and years, and I purchased everything....from body care to home fragrance and bunches of it. Then, it turned on me and now makes me sick to wear it and smell it. I can get away with using up my shower gels as hand soaps because they aren't too close to my nose but for wearing it as a Signature Fragrance? I don't think I can anymore. Here, again...a whipped shimmer product. I guess I had a thing for shimmer...because I seem to have plenty of it in many, many fragrances.
I kept this Warm Vanilla Sugar tucked away as an archive, and the scent is still good, believe it or not. This was from a time when Warm Vanilla Sugar was a perfect scent. Not the scent it seems to be now. It just turned out to be one of those that turned on me and I had to stop wearing it. This should get tossed.
Aromatherapy:
I love my Aromatherapy scents for sure, but with having so much of EVERYTHING else, it is work to keep them in the rotation for use. With new Aromatherapy always coming out, I have to pass on getting more until this collection is whittled down some.
The Boost scent was one of my favorites and these are the last of those I have.
I laugh about the Sleep scents. I am the only girl I know that can lavish those sleep fragrances all over me and still be awake at 3:30am. I guess, I am just part hoot owl. The pillow mists are a favorite though. Their scent is refreshing as you turn down the bed at night...even if you can't sleep.
The travel size bottles were a perfect pathway into trying a new fragrance. I wish every scent released came out in a travel size - it would make for less waste...for me at least. (Way back in the olden days when I started collecting, they had tons of signature fragrances travel size products offered...but when they charged only $1-$2 for them, people would stock up on those instead.)
Eucalyptus Spearmint is a favorite of mine, both in the shower gel and the bar soap.
Thankful was a novelty for be because it was different. I haven't touched these since I purchased them when they released.
Coco Shea, Mermaid on Duty, and French Lavender and Honey are all great products. They sort of fell to the back of the drawers and got buried beneath the aromatherapy items so they got out of rotation. These are going right in my to-go bag that I use daily. My poor hands are so dry from using alcohol on them all day long I forgot I had these that could definitely help. That French Lavender and Honey is such a great scent. I remember the floor set when it released as being one of my favorites. I bought so much body care as well as home decor pieces...which reminds me I need to pull those candle holders out now for spring.
This falls under what the hell are you thinking...category. Full disclosure, I fell under the monthly floor set spell of fragrance permeating my nose when entering the store...bright, and colorful displays of all things summer, luau music playing above me...and my common sense of being a very fair skinned individual who burns like Dracula at the first sign of sunlight was pushed away and I thought I could look like the other pretty tanned people if only I bought this.
This was what my entire life entailed of wanting to tan like the Coppertone baby only to end up ORANGE. My body's chemistry is like...Nope...you're going to look like your momma and not like your dad. Such a waste of money for me. And I knew it...and the sales associate warned me that EVERYONE was bringing them back...yet I thought I could try it at home for myself. I don't think I even tried the leg shine...once the Malibu got all over everything I sat on...I was good at not shining. Ha ha. I should have returned it all.
The same goes for the True Blue Spa Malibu Radiance Whipped Body Cream. I didn't return any of this after I tried it, and instead stuck it all in a drawer. Garbage can time.
While the True Blue Cooling Sunscreen Mist was good, I purchased too much of it and it expired too fast to use up. I burn really easy so I don't wear expired sunscreens.
It's like Christmas finding these again. These items are all great and need to be moved out of the drawer to be finished off.
The same goes for the Water Collection. This is my backup of what I have left and I will be putting them in a basket to use before they go bad. A great collection of products.
Now, the things that get so yucky when they sit too long. It's the changing of color that gets to me and when you open the product you can tell, it's not usable. The scrubs below...I kept them thinking I could use these last few up outside in the spring and summer for hand cleaning during planting and yard work. I used up only one last season and I am not liking the looks of these now they are too oily...so they will be wasted and hit the trash. You don't even want to smell that raspberry mojito.
These shimmer fizz items couldn't spray. Another item I should have returned immediately but didn't. I am not sure if it was the cap or the pin into the can but they wouldn't work sadly. Fragrances were good, product was trendy, can was uncooperative.
And finally, the body polish and body creams color changes. My Vanilla Bean Noel Body Cream from last Christmas is no longer that delish creamy color but a drab, ugly brown now. Vanilla base products change pretty quick. I am using that up no matter what color it wants to turn.
I love both of these kinds of products but if you buy too many that you can't get used up quickly enough, you are left with either using a product not up to the standard in which it was sold to you as, or tossing it and losing out.
I don't even want to know the dollar value of items that will be tossed out. It's an expensive lesson to be learned on spending habits for these luxury items when you over shop...and don't use them up quickly or return them when you really don't like them. I gift so much body care so when I see something new I always think about my gift drawer. It would probably serve me better to buy a gift card instead.
Keep checking back as I go through more of my collection and share some thoughts on each item. Thanks for visiting.