The Ultimate Fall Scent Debate: Glade, Air Wick or Febreze?

October has arrived and with it colorful leaves, pumpkins, cool weather and the horribly difficult decision of which brand's apple & cinnamon scent to fragrance your home with this Fall.

Today I have decided to stick to the basics and, to help you make an informed decision on your Fall fragrance, I visited my local Target and purchased the standard variant in candle format from each of the main brands.

Today's scent contenders:

Glade Apple Cinnamon, 4oz, $2.54

Glade's Apple Cinnamon's cold throw is moderate with a delicately sweet scent of red apple flesh (not skin).  There are little, if no, traces of spice in the scent.

In use, the fragrance was, unfortunately, a disappointment.  There was a tiny whiff of apples, but it was completely overtaken by the scent of wax.

Air Wick Apple & Shimmering Spice, 3oz, $2.50

The cold throw of Air Wick's Apple & Shimmering Spice is intense!  Immediately Wrigley's Big Red chewing gum springs to mind, which means that the scent is all cinnamon and no apple.


In use, the hot throw lacked the intensity of the cold throw.  The room was left lightly fragranced with very soft notes of apple that intertwined with, and softened, the previously overwhelming cinnamon scent.

Febreze Apple Spice & Delight, 5.5oz, $4.99

Febreze's Apple Spice & Delight's cold throw is pleasantly strong with tones of red apple skins and a slight wisp of cinnamon.  Out of the three, Febreze wins the cold throw competition hands down.


Sadly, I was let down by the mediocre hot throw of this candle.  The room was filled with the subtle scent of red apple skins mixed with wax and a dash of cinnamon.

***

With the three candles assessed, it is time for conclusions...


Glade's Apple Cinnamon is the least expensive of the three, but this is evident in cold throw and hot throw where first the fragrance was minimal, and then the fragrance was non-existent.


Air Wick Apple & Shimmering Spice is moderately priced, but its cold throw was almost offensive in the strength of the cinnamon, although it did mellow out in use.


Febreze Apple Spice & Delight is the most expensive of the three with the best and most pleasant cold throw, but also the most disappointing hot throw.


Thus, the ultimate debate on affordable Fall scents is now over with Air Wick and Febreze tying for first place, leaving Glade trailing behind and left lonely on the store shelf!

Seasonal Anti-bacs?! The latest line of PocketBacs from BBW

Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

It's the end of September, which means the stores are jam-packed with Halloween paraphernalia.  There are bags of candy to buy, as well as humongous pumpkins for carving (I can't wait to get my hands on one of those!), but one thing I didn't realize was that the Halloween theme had made its way into personal care products.

Admittedly, I was greatly bemused when I walked into Bath and Body Works (BBW) on Saturday and saw they had a range of Halloween scents in convenient travel size lotions.  Would you like some Wicked Spiced Pumpkin or is maybe Scream-A-Colada more to your taste?

I can't blame BBW, limited edition seasonal scents are an easy way to re-concept and re-invigorate tired fragrances or to test out new ones on consumers without too much consequence.  So, I understand their Halloween body lotion and hand soap ranges, but Halloween Anti-bacterial Sanitizing Hand Gel?

When I got home I went on BBW's website and it turns out that somewhere along the line I missed that Anti-bac had become a hot ticket item.  They have floral to gourmand to fruity variants in their trademarked PocketBac line.  It is undeniable that with this line BBW introduced the question to consumers: Who wants plain old Purell when you can have a cute, fun smelling BBW anti-bac?  Unsurprisingly, before I can answer that question, I'm going to have to get to smelling!

Zombie Tonic:  Marshmallow.

Vanilla accented alcohol that dries into a soft musk.

Bat bite: Apple.

Helloooo Green Apple!  The dry down smells like Granny Smith apple peel.

Phantom Pumpkin.

Pumpkin Spice Latte anyone?  This scent is barely discernible until the dry down, which is very subtly pleasant indeed.

Candy Corn: Caramel.

The most lightly fragranced one thus far.  At first there is a scent of alcohol and cream, which is reminiscent of first Bailey's and then Egg Nog, and then it dries down into a very light vanilla bean scent.

Gum ball.

Bazooka Joe!  Or if you don't know what that is just imagine a pink bubble gumball!  The scent is so strong and distinct, it's almost like you're chewing some bubblegum yourself.

Skulls: Forbidden Apple

Think McIntosh Apple 

Bones: Monster Mint

Minty with chocolately hints.

Scary Cats: Black Cherry

One word: Robitussin.  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing and, actually, in use it is a very sweet, yummy black cherry scent which sits nicely on the skin.

There you go - my evaluation of the eight scents that I picked up on their 8 for $5 deal.  Now that I have smelled them, how about we get back to the question - Who wants plain old Purell when you can have a cute, fun smelling BBW anti-bac?

Well, I hate to admit this, and you might have sensed at the beginning that I was sceptical at best about the idea of seasonal anti-bacs, but you know what?  They've convinced me - I definitely don't want plain, old, boring Purell!  The question now is which of these Halloween Pocketbacs to use first!

Which Blonde Are You?

Ahh, yes.  The summer flankers have arrived and models with long blonde hair grace the advertisements of all three fragrances now out in your nearest department store.

First:  the ever so seductive DKNY Be Delicious flanker - Golden Delicious.

The fragrance opens with a light floral scent of rose and lily, but underneath the innocent top notes lurk deep woody tones mixed with layers of musk.  The bottom notes give a sensual dimension to the fragrance that keeps it from being a simple, straight floral.

The bottom notes make this a heavier fragrance that would be good for wearing in Fall, at night or (as the poster suggests) when being seductive.

Second: the wistfully sweet and innocent Marc Jacobs Lola flanker - Oh, Lola!

The top is light, sweet and citrus-y with elements of green notes, which lift the fragrance.  It dries into a gentle and inoffensive white floral with small traces of musk.

This is a safe fragrance choice that is perfect for daytime wear.

Third:  the classy, 'au naturel' Pure DKNY flanker - Pure DKNY Verbena.

Top note is verbena, no doubt about that, but the citrus note is quickly balanced out with a Ponds cold cream-esque note of musk and rose.

It is an instantly fresh and comforting fragrance (but maybe that's because the dry down reminds me of my grandmother!)


This is a good all-round scent for anytime wear.

So, what will you choose?  The seductive Golden Delicious, the sweet, innocent Oh, Lola! or the classy, au naturel Pure DKNY Verbena?

As for me, (sorry flankers!) I've got my eye on the new Fall fragrance from Tom Ford - Violet Blonde launching this September.  Stay tuned ...

Fall scents already? I haven't even perfected my tan yet!

The bright sunshine glistening on the newly cleaned pool was calling to me, but instead I climbed inside the excruciatingly hot car and headed over to the mall to buy a much belated birthday present.

Once there, I made my purchase and soon found myself deviating off track.  Instead of heading back into the heat, I was heading over to the Yankee Candle shop.  Before I knew it, I was asking the shop assistant if there was anything new in stock!

He directed me straight over to their new Fall fragrances - Kitchen Spice, Nature's Paintbrush, Over the River, Pumpkin Buttercream and Vanilla Satin.

I exclaimed, "Fall fragrances?!"  The shop assistant just smiled at my surprise and showed me one of the more popular of the five:  Kitchen Spice.

Unfortunately, it was not a new or exciting scent - mostly just clove, clove and more clove.  Very undistinctive from other Fall spicey scents, so let's move on.

Nature's Paintbrush was a bit more interesting-

It is warm, woody with definite musk tones, but also with a hint of dampness.  The combination of these notes are reminiscent of the smells found when walking along a path after a soft Autumn rain, playfully kicking up the moist, multicolored leaves along the way.  Yankee Candle has definitely embodied the outdoor scent of Fall in this fragrance.

Next up - Over the River

This was the shop assistants favorite, but that is unsurprising as he was male and this scent is very male fine fragrance-y.  I would say it was nearly a straight marine fragrance.  Sophisticated for a candle, but not too interesting beyond that.

The penultimate fragrance - Pumpkin Buttercream

I am a lover of gourmand fragrances and this scent definitely starts out well with creamy, cake-y undertones ... which lead into a punch in the face of cinnamon that just does not go away.  I cleared my nose more than once to attempt to get the yummy buttercream smell back, but the cinnamon was too overwhelming.  If you like Big Red, this one is for you!

Finally, last but not least, Vanilla Satin

 

(apologies, no photo was available of the product)

Vanilla and Sandalwood?  Not quite - try Linen!  Linen is one of the most popular fragrance concepts at the moment, and Americans love the vanilla scent.  Pairing these two hot ticket items together should make for a winning fragrance, but this was not the case.

Firstly, for Yankee Candle standards I did not find that the cold throw was very strong.  I had to re-smell the fragrance multiple times before I discovered that it was your run-of-the-mill linen scent.  If you like the common 'fresh linen scent' this one is for you, just don't expect to find a vanilla hook in there per the product name!

There you have it!  The five new fragrances from Yankee Candle for the Fall.  Nature's Paintbrush has intrigued my nose, but as for the rest ... maybe not this year!