Quick Sniff Review: Surprisingly the sweeter of these two candles – the caramel really comes out strong with this one and seems like a good holiday scent, a la pumpkin pie crossed with gingerbread!

Final Verdict: Why choose when you can just leave ‘em burning side by side to compliment each other’s naturally delicious traits?!

Quick Sniff Review: This candle was actually the scent that appealed to me more when I came across it in the store because, hello, cupcakes! It has a slightly more rich pumpkin smell than its counterpart in today’s comparison, which was kind of surprising because I would’ve thought that cupcakes = sweetness!

Body Wash Backup!: I’ve actually had this for a couple of months now, but just never got around to trying it until I finally ran out of my regular body wash about a week ago and otherwise didn’t have any other choice! I guess I wasn’t really in much of a rush because I sort of figured that it would be just like the hand soaps and lotions of the same name…

But Wait!: It actually wasn’t - the scent was considerably more tame than its cinnamon-heavy predecessors, though definitely still pleasant. This was probably all for the best, as nothing dampens the mood quite like stepping out of a nice, hot shower, only to be told, “Stay the hell away from me – you reek like pumpkin!”  In fact, my wife even mentioned that she gave the stuff a go the other day when she was running low herself, though I did not that she didn’t hesitate to pick up a new bottle of her own preference shortly thereafter.

Constructive Criticism: If I had but one critique of this creamy elixir, it would be that it’s rough and I didn’t expect that when I first started slathering it on! What can I say - I’m a guy, and as such I’m not particularly fond of being exfoliated without my own prior consent, so it was a little bit of a surprise when I noticed that my loofah had assumed the consistency of sandpaper. Granted, I’m sure the bottle even says something like this in all of that fine print, but just for future reference, B&BW folks – yours truly formally requests creamy pumpkin next time as opposed to chunky pumpkin… 

Welcome to Scent Week!!!

…because I’ve got to get all of this scented crap reviewed sooner or later…

Spray and Spray Alike: I enjoy this one because I’ve already tried it in different hand soap varieties for a number of years, so once I learned that they also made it in these neat, little spray bottles, I just knew that I had to pick one up for myself! My wife has had a couple of different non-pumpkin-scents of these things over the years because she likes to keep them in the bedroom – they really do a great job of keeping the room smelling fresh without requiring you to unleash half the bottle on a single incident.

First Glance: I know, I know – at first glance, this one looks shockingly similar to one of those bottles of hand soaps that I reviewed last fall, and I suppose if you base your intuition solely on the name, then that would technically be correct!  However upon closer inspection, you’ll note that this jack o’lantern-donning variety lacks those same weird exfoliating spheres that yours truly found kind of annoying in the previous offering, so frankly, I kind of like this year’s model better!

Also: Yes, that is very much an Octopus Dish Scrubber there accompanying our cheery bottle of hand soap by my kitchen sink.  Stay tuned for my next goofy blog, Love Me Some Cephalopods!, and I’ll be happy to tell you all about him…

Disclaimer: What can I say?  My wife likes this store for obvious girly reasons, so whenever I find myself wandering its aisles while she’s looking for some new lotion or whatever, I do what I can to entertain myself!  Often times that results in me taking funny pictures of the various scents until the stores employees with their creepy headsets tell me to stop, but in this case, believe it or not I was an actual customer, too!

Taste Scents: Oddly enough, it’s actually the Creamy Pumpkin variety that has more pumpkin spice smell to it; if anything, the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin scent reminds me of most other random fruity lotions that they sell at that place.  This kind of surprised me because I have a candle of the latter I got last year and I really enjoy that … I was sort of expecting the soap to have a similar fragrance.
Texture: They’ve also both got those weird, little “exfoliating microspheres” in them like you sometimes find in body wash, which I’m not particularly a fan of because it always feels like I’m washing myself with sand, but who am I to fight a trend in anti-bacterial cleansing technologies?
Happy Ending: Although ultimately I actually prefer Creamy Pumpkin myself, I also pride myself as being an equal opportunity host, so please note that you will find both varieties at your disposal in my guest bathroom going forward, should you be visiting and find yourself needing to tidy up a bit!  That is, at least until my wife finds them and swaps them out for cherry or watermelon or some other traditional hand soap nonsense…

Awesomeness: Seriously, what better Christmas gift could a pumpkin-fan get than the opportunity to lather himself with pumpkin each and every morning?!
Caveat: Just as the picture shows, this delectable scent actually came as part of a set of several different food-scented shampoos, but which one do you think yours truly cracked open first?
Showery Aroma: like taking a bath in a pumpkin pie … without all of the uncleanliness
After-Smell?: Surprisingly, shortly after leaving the shower the pumpkin scent had pretty much dissipated, which was probably a good thing because although I loved the smells filling the shower during my morning rituals, I’m not so sure that reeking of pumpkin would be the best impression to make upon everyone who I encountered throughout the rest of the day!
Gratitude Due: A special thanks to my loving wife for finding such an awesomely pumpkin-i-fied Christmas gift.  May all of our Christmases together be merry and orange…